Wireless Connection Secure?

[Anthony Smith]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

My boss is using a Dell Laptop with WinXP SP2. When he's travelling around
in different locations, he notices that sometimes he can access other
people's wireless connection. It will either say secure or non-secure. Some
of the networks he can get on and gain access to the internet and some he
can't. He's concerned if someone nearby can access his wireless connection
at his house? I have the Windows Firewall running but it does allow some
exceptions, IE Explorer, and a few others.
Should I purchase a 3rd party software to make it secure or are we ok with
WinXP SP2 and the Windows Firewall? Please advise.

Sincerely,
Anthony Smith
In God We Trust!

 

[Yves Leclerc]

NO! Wireless setups, right out of the box, are not secure. You need to get
more info on how to set up WEP or WAP access over the wireless access.

 

[Malke]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

My boss is using a Dell Laptop with WinXP SP2. When he's travelling
around in different locations, he notices that sometimes he can access
other
people's wireless connection. It will either say secure or non-secure.
Some of the networks he can get on and gain access to the internet
and some he can't. He's concerned if someone nearby can access his
wireless connection
at his house? I have the Windows Firewall running but it does allow
some exceptions, IE Explorer, and a few others.
Should I purchase a 3rd party software to make it secure or are we ok
with
WinXP SP2 and the Windows Firewall? Please advise.

That's the way wireless works. For your own security, do some reading
here:

Wireless - Basic Security - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html
MVP Barb Bowman on wireless security - http://tinyurl.com/56fc5
The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless LAN -
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=43

Malke

 

[Bobby]

Use WEP 128 bit encryption. Create a paraphrase and take note of the key
generated. You should then be able to connect the dell labtop using the
generated key.

It's best to read the instructions that came with your wireless AP/Router as
the above I described may vary from make/model.

 

[Anthony Smith]

Thank you all for your comments. I'll read up on it. We don't have wireless
here in the office so I haven't had any real experience. My boss just uses
it at home. From the looks, I'm going to have to visit his house to set up
the router/firewall correctly.

Thanks again and have a blessed day!

Anthony....

 

[Z]

He's concerned if someone nearby can access his wireless connection
at his house?

If he has WPA, he needs to enable that.
If he has WEP, he needs to enable the 128-bit mode.
If he runs 64 bit WEP or nothing, he's asking for visitors.

Note that WPA-PSK and WEP-128 are not that secure, but they're better
than nothing. With all the unsecured networks out there, even one
running WEP-128 or WPA-PSK is a less tempting target than the rest.


And if he's jumping onto other people's networks, he needs to understand
what evil twin networks are and how they can compromise his laptop when
he uses them - I assume that's the same laptop he brings back into work
and connects to the internal LAN there, right?

 

[Anthony Smith]

Good Afternoon,

I went to all the websites you listed below and printed off some of the
material and read over it. I went to my boss' house yesterday and setup the
secure connection. But I'm a little unsure of a few things, please advise:

1) After I finished the wireless network setup wizard, I printed the
settings and everything appear to look ok with the WPA setup except for "Key
Provided Automatically" set to 0. I didn't see where that was specified in
the wizard. Should this be set to 0?
2) The router is a Netgear WGR614 v5 and it is WPA compatible. When I went
into the setup and changed the security settings to WPA and set up the SSID
and Network Key, it had a time limit on the key. We could specify a time
limit up to 256 minutes. What do you recommend?

I guess I must have overlooked it in the reading. I didn't know the key was
going to get changed automatically? How will it know which computer is able
to gain access to the network and give it a key and which isn't? I guess I
don't understand if I manually chose a key and it's stored on the laptop, if
my boss turns the PC off and comes back on and has the same key how it will
access the network. My boss also asked about if he has friends over with
their laptops, how will they gain access to the net? I guess I'm trying to
understand how he can allow friends that come to the house to access the net
and BLOCK outside drive-by's/intruders. Please advise.

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Anthony Smith
In God We Trust!

 

[Shah]

I guess what you are trying to achieve is limit outsiders fromaccessing your
boss's Wireless connection.

1) After I finished the wireless network setup wizard, I printed the
settings and everything appear to look ok with the WPA setup except for
"Key Provided Automatically" set to 0. I didn't see where that was
specified in the wizard. Should this be set to 0?

Well i guess it dont matter if the router gives you the WEP keys or you
manually type in some phrase which generates the WEP KEY.
make it to 0 if you want to input the passphrase by yourself if not leave it
to 1

2) The router is a Netgear WGR614 v5 and it is WPA compatible. When I went
into the setup and changed the security settings to WPA and set up the SSID

and Network Key, it had a time limit on the key. We could specify a time
limit up to 256 minutes. What do you recommend?

I dont, unless you really want to key in new WEP keys every 256 minutes

I guess I must have overlooked it in the reading. I didn't know the key
was going to get changed automatically? How will it know which computer is
able to gain access to the network and give it a key and which isn't? I
guess I don't understand if I manually chose a key and it's stored on the
laptop, if my boss turns the PC off and comes back on and has the same key
how it will access the network. My boss also asked about if he has
friends over with their laptops, how will they gain access to the net? I
guess I'm trying to understand how he can allow friends that come to the
house to access the net and BLOCK outside drive-by's/intruders. Please
advise.

As long as you havent given the option to change the key after 265 minutes
or whatever, even if you reboot he still should be able to access the
network.
As far as his friends goes. Every time they try to access his net they will
need to put the new key in. or whatever key your boss is unsing.

Unless you have the WEP key nobody can access it unless he is a hardcore
hacker.


Hope it helps. Correct me if i am not right,

 

[Sparda]

Good Afternoon,

I went to all the websites you listed below and printed off
some of the
material and read over it. I went to my boss' house yesterday
and setup the
secure connection. But I'm a little unsure of a few things,
please advise:

1) After I finished the wireless network setup wizard, I
printed the
settings and everything appear to look ok with the WPA setup
except for "Key
Provided Automatically" set to 0. I didn't see where that was
specified in
the wizard. Should this be set to 0?
2) The router is a Netgear WGR614 v5 and it is WPA compatible.
When I went
into the setup and changed the security settings to WPA and
set up the SSID
and Network Key, it had a time limit on the key. We could
specify a time
limit up to 256 minutes. What do you recommend?

I guess I must have overlooked it in the reading. I didn't
know the key was
going to get changed automatically? How will it know which
computer is able
to gain access to the network and give it a key and which
isn't? I guess I
don't understand if I manually chose a key and it's stored on
the laptop, if
my boss turns the PC off and comes back on and has the same
key how it will
access the network. My boss also asked about if he has
friends over with
their laptops, how will they gain access to the net? I guess
I'm trying to
understand how he can allow friends that come to the house to
access the net
and BLOCK outside drive-by's/intruders. Please advise.

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Anthony Smith
In God We Trust!

Also (im not sure if this has been mentioned) but it is wise (perhaps
esentail) to have a firewall between the wired network and wireless
network. If "Your Boss" only uses his laptop to connect to the
internet you will only need to faward ports 80 and 443, other wise
consult documentaion of other software you may use over the network
for port fawarding. It would be wise to avoid farwarding windows
specific ports (for indows file sharing and such) over wireless
connections.

 

[Horza]

Unless you have the WEP key nobody can access it unless he is a
hardcore hacker.


Hope it helps. Correct me if i am not right,

That’s not right, WEP does not provide strong security and can be
broken by pretty much anyone who knows how to use a search engine to
find some freely available tools and perhaps some simple instructions,
not just "hardcore hackers".