How to prevent others from using my wireless network?

[spittledip]

Hi,

How does on protect their wireless network from others? I need at least the basics.

thanks much

 

[JackMDS]

You have to use the Wireless Security settings of your system.

From the weakest to the strongest, Wireless security capacity is.
No Security
MAC
WEP
WPA-PSK
WPA-AES
WPA2

The documentation of your Wireless devices (Wireless Router, and Wireless Computers Card) should state the type of security that is available with your Wireless hardware.

All devices MUST be set to the same security level using the same pass phrase.

Therefore the security must be set according what ever is the best possible of one of the Wireless devices.

I.e. even if most of your system might be capable to be configured to the max. with WPA2, but one device is only capable to be configured to max . of WEP, to whole system must be configured to WEP.

If you need more good security and one device (like a Wireless card that can do WEP only) is holding better security for the whole Network, replace the device with a better one.

Wireless Security - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html

 

[spittledip]

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[HannibalX]

MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

MAC filtering is not security, you'd be better off with static WEP (which is not very secure, but better than relying on MAC filtering).

spittledip - Jack's post sums this topic up great. For any new network I suggest WPA.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

MAC filtering is like closing (but not locking) your doors


no....it's not even that good.

 

[n0cmonkey]

MAC filtering and WEP aren't security, they're placebos.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

MAC filtering is like closing (but not locking) your doors


no....it's not even that good.

This is a great analogy :thumbsup:

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

MAC filtering is like closing (but not locking) your doors


no....it's not even that good.

The truth is most people looking to leech Internet access are not complete geeks like your typical anandtech user - hell they aren't even a little bit geek. I stand by my original statement that MAC address filtering will keep most people out. Most people have no idea what they are doing.

More precautions can be taken and will keep even more geeky folks out also, I never disputed that.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

MAC filtering is like closing (but not locking) your doors


no....it's not even that good.

The truth is most people looking to leech Internet access are not complete geeks like your typical anandtech user - hell they aren't even a little bit geek. I stand by my original statement that MAC address filtering will keep most people out. Most people have no idea what they are doing.

More precautions can be taken and will keep even more geeky folks out also, I never disputed that.

Mac filtering and WEP can be defeated with GUI based tools and google in about 5 minutes.

Why would you waste that time (mac filtering is a pain to keep up) when you can establish a (currently) unhackable setup easier with WPA or WPA2?

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
MAC address filtering is the easiest way to keep people out. Set your router so that only specified addresses can connect. This will keep 99.9% of people out. For everyone else you can have fun by kicking them out as soon as they connect.

MAC filtering is like closing (but not locking) your doors


no....it's not even that good.

The truth is most people looking to leech Internet access are not complete geeks like your typical anandtech user - hell they aren't even a little bit geek. I stand by my original statement that MAC address filtering will keep most people out. Most people have no idea what they are doing.

More precautions can be taken and will keep even more geeky folks out also, I never disputed that.

Mac filtering and WEP can be defeated with GUI based tools and google in about 5 minutes.

Why would you waste that time (mac filtering is a pain to keep up) when you can establish a (currently) unhackable setup easier with WPA or WPA2?

MAC filtering certainly is a pain to keep up. a few years ago when my parents bought their first wireless stuff, i couldnt get WEP to even work across all of it, and had to resort to MAC filtering

such a pain in the ass

 

[orion23]

I use both WPA2 and MAC filtering, along with a limited number of assigned IP addresses!

 

[dfnkt]

MAC filtering I would say is good to keep out stupid people, however using MAC filtering is not good against someone who knows even a little bit about cracking a wifi network, all you need is a sniffer and then you can use something like SMAC to change the mac address of your pcmcia card to match one with access to the network. Also some people like to turn of SSID broadcast, again this is only useful to stop stupid people, all your doing is turning off SSID beacon, you're not turning off the other 3 or 4 acknowledges or so that happen when packets are sent and received on a wireless network, also programs built to sniff and/or crack wireless networks can be set to look for networks whether or not they use SSID broadcast (Because of the aforementioned reasons) IMO all you do when you turn off SSID broadcast is make it harder on yourself to set up new wireless devices. If you have access to it, try to find a book written by Chris Hurley, Frank Thornton, Michael Puchol, and Russ Rogers entitled "WarDriving: Drive, Detect, Defend. A guid to wireless security." Has some very good advice on wireless security. ISBN: 1-931836-03-5