Get a copy of Netstumbler, deconfigure one of your desktop machines
(i.e. don't give it the key to the network's encryption),
then look to see if your network is visible/available.
In the second doc, one of the software tools displays <no ssid>
implying the tool in question was still able to see the radio
signal. That doesn't mean they can use the network, but the signal
can be recognized. They would know a wireless lan was present.
Anyone wardriving would have access to those tools. And could
piggyback if they wanted to, unless you have secured your network.
If you are experiencing a large difference in network performance
between encryption and no-encryption, it could be there is
some other problem with your setup. The penalty here doesn't
seem to be that large. Perhaps you need to benchmark your two
configurations (WEP versus WPA) and see if the difference is
larger than benchmarks available on some websites. It could be
that sticking with one brand of hardware will make life easier.
The SSID is always included in transmitted packets. Turning off broadcast
just blinds most client software. Other software (like Kismet) can see the
SSID regardless of the state of the broadcast flag.
Not broadcasting the SSID makes it more likely that somebody else nearby
will settle in on the same (or nearby) channel and you'll both experience
slow communication.
Or maybe not. My next-door neighbor and across-the-street neighbor both
camp out on channel 6. Both broadcast SSID. Both grumble about unreliable
wifi connections. Neither (apparently) has ever looked to see who else is
around.
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