RE: home wireless router good practices for security

From: Aditya [ Aditya Lalit Deshmukh ] (aditya_at_online.nailed.org)
Date: 12/31/03

  • Next message: Greg Tracy: "Re: home wireless router good practices for security" 
    To: "Steve" <securityfocus@delahunty.com>, <security-basics@securityfocus.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 11:39:19 +0530

    1. wireless encryption wont make any nocicable diffence in your network performance
    2. dont know
    3. 3 suggestions
            a. install a personal firewall for your os
            b. setup a vpn if you are paranoid after you have enabled WEP - makes a 10% performance loss but worth it
            c. setup snort with the relevent signatures

    -aditya

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Steve [mailto:securityfocus@delahunty.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 12:03 AM
    To: security-basics@securityfocus.com
    Subject: home wireless router good practices for security

    So I went out and purchased a wireless router (Linksys 802.11b) for home
    since it was so inexpensive and actually less cost than the wireless access
    points I was trying to get via eBay. Got it home, installed my wireless
    network card (SMC), powered on the router, attached it to a port on my other
    wired linksys router, and boom it worked great. Then about 5 minutes after
    I sent an instant message to my neighbor (fellow IT friend) he was on my
    network. So I took the steps that Linksys recommends below, seems good (to
    me).
        Change the default SSID
        Disable SSID Broadcasts
        Change the default password for the Administrator account
        Enable WEP 128-bit Encryption
    Linksys also recommends these other measures, I have not implemented:
        Enable MAC Address Filtering
        Change the SSID periodically
        Change the WEP encryption keys periodically.

    My Questions:

    1) Anyone know how much enabling 128-bit encryption will hurt my wireless
    performance?

    2) Does setting the SSID for my wireless NIC then keep me from getting onto
    other wireless networks like when traveling? I ask since that setting was
    set to ANY before I changed it to the SSID that I set for my wireless
    router.

    3) What else should I really do to protect my home network?

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ________________________________________________________________________
    Delivered using the Free Personal Edition of Mailtraq (www.mailtraq.com)

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  • Next message: Greg Tracy: "Re: home wireless router good practices for security"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Linksys NAS200 Network Storage adapter
      ... The only two wireless network settings that are of any consequence are the SSID and the encryption method and password. ... either click the "Print Network Settings" button on the final screen of the Wizard or simply access the appropriate XML file and get at them that way and then use the information to configure the router manually as I explained earlier. ... I've read thru some of the MS web site on that product and it appears to do everything a NAS will do plus other cool features, such as, with an xbox360 with the wireless adapter, I can stream my video/pics to my TV for family viewing. ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)
    • Re: Networking Question - VLANs on SBS 2003 Premium SP1
      ... Finally was able to get some network downtime to make the change in routers ... wireless router, but - once connected to the SBS box and I've run CEICW, the ... I ran the ISA and SBS BPA's and didn't see anything. ... I put the old router back in service so I could work on this some more. ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
    • Re: share my printer between 2 computers and surf with 2 computers at same time
      ... The main piece of hardware you need to buy is a router. ... Because wireless routers for home use are ... you can use that to have a wired network. ... -2 short UTP cables ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)
    • Re: share my printer between 2 computers and surf with 2 computers at same time
      ... The main choice you have to make is whether to have the router include wireless capability or not. ... Because wireless routers for home use are relatively inexpensive these days, I'd suggest buying a wireless router even if you don't initially intend to use that capability. ... If you already have a UTP cable going between upstairs and downstairs, you can use that to have a wired network. ... caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall; ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)
    • Re: share my printer between 2 computers and surf with 2 computers at same time
      ... The main piece of hardware you need to buy is a router. ... Because wireless routers for home use are ... you can use that to have a wired network. ... caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall; ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)