How reasonably secure is my wireless network

[tnitsuj]

Linksys WRT54GL router

128bit wep turned on
SSID broadcast turned on
MAC address fliter turned on

I would switch to WPA but my laptop from work runs W2k and does not support WPA.

 

[Madwand1]

None of those measure is currently secure. I'd say that your security in practice depends independently on (a) the level of boredom / interest in your neighbours (b) the number of available open / less secure networks in your neighbourhood.

But I'd just wire the laptop, or buy a device or driver which provides WPA support for it.

 

[tfinch2]

If your neighbor really wanted to and had the knowledge of course, he'd be on it in less than 20 minutes.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: tfinch2
If your neighbor really wanted to and had the knowledge of course, he'd be on it in less than 20 minutes.

20 minutes is a long time, It would take most wireless guru's 20 seconds....


Find if your card supports WPA, if it does, get the latest updated util for it, and use that. Win2K does just fine with WPA and WPA2

 

[krose]

I had the same issue with a Win2K desktop and a Dlink wireless adapter. WEP worked fine but I could not connect with WPA. Then I found this utility which allows me to use WPA with Win2K.

 

[49erinnc]

Not to hijack the OP's thread, but what are the cons, if any, of going with WPA instead of WEP? Do you compromise the signal strength or is there really no downside to using WPA? I know the pros of WPA over WEP but was just curious if there were any drawbacks at all.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: tfinch2
If your neighbor really wanted to and had the knowledge of course, he'd be on it in less than 20 minutes.

20 minutes is a long time, It would take most wireless guru's 20 seconds....


Find if your card supports WPA, if it does, get the latest updated util for it, and use that. Win2K does just fine with WPA and WPA2

It takes a few minutes to break the WEP, but as everyone has already stated, you should consider your current setup to be as insecure as no protection at all.

 

[JackMDS]

For Win2000

http://www.wirelesssecuritycorp.com/wsc/public/WPAAssistant.do

:sun: