Securing a wireless network

[Daniel Prince]

How difficult is it to secure a wireless home network?

I just bought a Thinkpad laptop on ebay and I want to network it
with my desktop computer and my cable modem. I am thinking of
buying the Belkin 802.11g Wireless Notebook Network Card Part
#F5D7010 and a Belkin Wireless Router (F5D72304) that are on sale
this week at Circuit City for $15 (for both) after rebate.

I want to use a freeware program that I found
(http://www.tightvnc.com/) to use the laptop as a terminal to
control my desktop computer. I want to be able to easily access the
files on my desktop but have it be VERY difficult for anyone else to
access my files.

How can I do this? Is it relatively easy to do? Is there a good
web site with instructions? Thank you in advance for all replies.

 

[Thorsten Schmitt]

Hi,

the fastest and easiest way to secure a home WLAN is in my opinion to use
WEP encryytion.

Its fast and easy to set up on the router and the client(s), you only need
to setup 128 bit encryption and provide the keys to the 2 clients.

WEP is not that secure as WPA with certificates, but WPA (and especially the
certificates) needs more administrative overhead. I think, this is not
necessary for a home WLAN.
It would be possible for a good hacker to hack into a WEP encrpyted WLAN,
but I think, no one is in use to do such an effort for a simple home WLAN.

Regards
Thorsten