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On 27/05/10 17:53, Neil Winchurst wrote:
Just replaced a dying router with a new one (Netgear DG834G) and set it up quite easily with a minor problem. My ISP was a great help. Previously I have never bothered about security on the wifi part of the router. I suppose I ought to make the effort, even in the area where I live in with mostly non computer users around. The choices include WAP-PSK2 which has been suggested as a good one. Can anyone give me any advice please? My laptop is connected by cable to the router but there are two laptops too. The one running Mint is set up, but the wife has Windows XP so I hope that will be easy too!! So, is it worth setting up some security? Regards Neil
Yes I certainly would. I'm sure I read somewhere recently that as part of this Digital Economy Bill ISPs will send out letters to subscribers asking them to check that their wifi is secure if they are accused of sharing copyrighted content.
AFAIK at the moment WPA-PSK2 is the strongest encryption you can get. Your Netgear should support this (at least my old DG834G did and that was 3 or 4 years old).
The problem comes though when you want to connect up devices via wifi which don't support WPA. Saying that the only device I've found that doesn't support WPA is the Nintendo DS (and DS Lite)* which only support no encryption, WEP or AOSS. No encryption would mean anyone could get on to your network (you could enable Mac address filtering although it might not be half as secure) and WEP can be cracked easily enough. AOSS on the other hand, well I'm not sure about that. I've only seen one router which supports AOSS so I can't comment on how secure it is.
I guess in a way though it could possibly be used as a defence against being accused of copyright infringement.
"I do have a secured wireless network M'lud, but the kids want to play their DS games against their friends so I'm limited to WEP which is easily cracked, so someone might have hacked into my network".
* From what I've read about it, the DS & DS Lite handhelds just aren't powerful enough to decrypt WPA wireless. The DSi I gather does support WPA encryption, although I'm not sure if it's on a per-game basis or what. I'd assume the Sony PSP does support WPA, and I know the PS3 and Wii do (not sure about the XBOX360, I can't be bothered to spend £60 on a wireless card for it!).
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html