Securing my wireless network

Oriel

Folks,
I'm living in an apartment complex, and have just set up a wireless network.
I've set WEP 128-bit with a passphase.
Is this enough or is there anything else I might need to know about?
I'm presuming that nobody is able to access any part of my network? (e.g. view computers etc)

Cheers,
S.

garthv

You could set your router to only allow access through MAC address? Cant get more secure than that.

Iago

Not trying to thread hijack Sinecurea...honestly...but I have a similar dilemma and figured rather than post a new thread it would be better in here in one place.

I'm on IOL BB and I'm using a Zxyel Wireless Router and PCIMIA card. I want to encrypt it but everytime I try to the PCIMIA Card stops working. I've followed the instructions but no joy there. The thing is I had the router encrypted before with a previous PCIMIA card and that worked fine, now I'm using a different card it doesn't seem to be syncing up.

What happens is this. I put the code on the router, and then on the PCIMIA card, all while the lan cable is connected to the laptop. It registers recognizes the network and says that the wireless connection is connected. As soon as I take the LAN Cable out the Wireless Connection drops and won't reconnect...I eventually gave up and I'm using an unencrypted router at present which I'm not liking very much.

I want to encrypt it and set up a firewall but as I do a lot of online gambling and exchanging "information" with my cousins so I need to be sure that I can still access the sites even with the firewall enabled.

If anybody could help with my query as well I'd be very grateful

Sorry again Sinecurea

voxpop

Iago: is the router using wpa or wep encryption - what pcmcia card are you using

sinecurea: WEP is know to be vulnerable if someone really wants to see what you are doing. WPA is a step up from WEP and should be used in its place, if possible

Iago

It's using WEP and the PCIMIA card is also a Zxyel card, it's the latest one they have out.

Karoma

iago:
What OS?
chances are doing it the right order will work:
Router: Set the encryption..
Client: Remove the Ethernet cable
edit: oh and you might wanna give hte router a minute to sort it's stuff out after you make a change (i.e. Encryption) -then move on..
Client: In (Windows I presume) - Removed Preferred network entries
Client: View Wireless networks (If the SSID is being broadcast; otherwise: go through the setup again) - and enter the passphrase this time.


Sinecurea: This is typically sufficient for most home use provided you rotate the password frequently and keep the passphrase someway difficult to crack or guess. Alternatively: WPA is significantly stronger (And the password longer.. ugh), and as suggested above MAC filtering adds another layer of security: but is not recommended if you have guests..)

Rew

GaRtH_V wrote:

You could set your router to only allow access through MAC address? Cant get more secure than that.

You can get plenty more secure then that... :rolleyes:
If you dont have WPA available on it then enable WEP, hide the ESSID (if you can) and turn on MAC filtering (if you can).

WEP, Hidden ESSID and MAC filtering dosn't secure it but sombody would want to be determined to go after you.

Karoma

MAC filtering only adds security if it's used with WPA or WEP.
Hiding the 'ESSID shouldn't really be considered a security measure - it's obscurity. Anyone looking will see it.. it just stops the network from jumping up and waving at everybody:)

Iago

Karoma wrote:

iago:
What OS?
chances are doing it the right order will work:
Router: Set the encryption..
Client: Remove the Ethernet cable
edit: oh and you might wanna give hte router a minute to sort it's stuff out after you make a change (i.e. Encryption) -then move on..
Client: In (Windows I presume) - Removed Preferred network entries
Client: View Wireless networks (If the SSID is being broadcast; otherwise: go through the setup again) - and enter the passphrase this time.

Ok tried this, still isn't working. I reset the router to factory settings and then went in and set the WEP encryption again. Removed the lan cable and connected the Wireless Card. It says that it's connected and that the signal is excellent, happy days...except when I try to view a webpage I get the "unable to open a browser" error message. Until I plug the lan cable back in again if I remove the encryption off the router then the wireless card works fine, but I'm convinced that someone else is feeding off my connection!

For information I'm using
Windows XP Professional
Zyxel Wireless Router
Zyxel G-162 Wireless Bus Card

thelad

Just a guess but maybe either pc or router might be using different key? 128bit or 64 bit?