Newbie questions about wireless security.

WEP and WPA encryption; that is to prevent someone from
within the physical range of your wireless signal from
joining your network, correct? It does not provide any
added internet security. Is there a good reason to go
through the trouble of setting it up, if there are no homes
or roads within physical range of your wireless network?

Robin wrote:
> WEP and WPA encryption; that is to prevent someone from
> within the physical range of your wireless signal from
> joining your network, correct? It does not provide any
> added internet security. Is there a good reason to go
> through the trouble of setting it up, if there are no homes
> or roads within physical range of your wireless network?

Depends on your level of paranoia, the wireless devices you use, and what's
on your network.. Personally, I don't have much to worry about, I'm in a
vehicle (RV), have wireless PDA's that don't do WPA (and are problematical
with WEP), keep private data on a netdisk unavalable to wireless users, and
turn off the broadcast SSID.

Correct. However, since setting up encryption is not at all difficult (with
WPA, you just have to enter an easy to remember passphrase once on each
device), there is probably no reason not to. Also, just because you cannot
connect to your access point from a certain distance away does not mean that
other people cannot.

-Yves

"Robin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:uFYFd.6271$IV5.439@attbi_s54...
> WEP and WPA encryption; that is to prevent someone from
> within the physical range of your wireless signal from
> joining your network, correct? It does not provide any
> added internet security. Is there a good reason to go
> through the trouble of setting it up, if there are no homes
> or roads within physical range of your wireless network?
>
>

"Robin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:uFYFd.6271$IV5.439@attbi_s54...
> WEP and WPA encryption; that is to prevent someone from
> within the physical range of your wireless signal from
> joining your network, correct? It does not provide any
> added internet security. Is there a good reason to go
> through the trouble of setting it up, if there are no homes
> or roads within physical range of your wireless network?
>

I guess not unless you think some wanderer with a wireless enabled laptop
may happen to pass by with his hotspot detector . Encryption is no
trouble to set up though, just a tick box and a password, it's the
performance hit that's more concerning but I think that's a negligible
percentage anyway.

I agree with the encryption. You should definitely use it. If you
don't want to use it then thats fine. People can sniff the data
packets flowing through the air. However, just remember that if you
are surfing to a https site wirelessly without encryption, you still
have the https protecting you. I'm paranoid of this stuff, so I use
WEP encryption, MAC filter, limit the IP address, and disable
broadcasting. If you don't want to use encryption, just disable the
broadcasting or enable MAC filtering, so it slows down someone from
just connecting directly to your network. Hope this help!

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 23:33:46 GMT, "Robin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>WEP and WPA encryption; that is to prevent someone from
>within the physical range of your wireless signal from
>joining your network, correct? It does not provide any
>added internet security. Is there a good reason to go
>through the trouble of setting it up, if there are no homes
>or roads within physical range of your wireless network?
>

You're correct. All wireless "security" does is prevent someone from
using your wireless bandwidth. Whether that matters is a matter of
philosophy.

It seems to be an almost kneejerk reaction to recommend turning on
encryption without citing any reason. I think it important to ask some
questions before reflexively slapping on the security.

Do you care if someone uses your unused Internet bandwidth?

If so, why? It doesn't cost you anything.

Do you have anything in your computer that you need to keep secret?

If so, have you taken steps to secure it from wired Internet intruders?

The questions are important because the various encryption schemes have
costs of their own. Encryption slows the link slightly and makes a laptop
use slightly more power. That's minor compared to the human overhead
required to keep the wireless network running, especially if you share it
with guests. Most of the compatibility problems you read about here and
in other forums stem from encryption incompatibilities.

Lest you think that the paranoia on display in this group is widespread,
consider this. Over the Christmas holidays I took an approx 1500 mile
wardrive/vacation in a big loop down one side of Florida and up the other
in my motorhome. The laptop was on the whole time and NetStumbler was
running.

I was absolutely amazed at the level of WiFi deployment. In the more
populated areas I get at least 100 hotspot hits per mile, sometimes
dramatically more. Even in the rural areas, one or two per mile were not
unusual. I'd guestimate that no more than 2% of those hotspots were
secured in any way. I could fetch email at almost any spot along the way.
All these thousands and thousands of hotspots are operating fully open
without the world coming to an end.

I'm a strong advocate of an open Internet. In the good old days before
the net was commercialized, one could find open dialup modems all over the
country. Most universities had them. Some were secured and some weren't.
When I traveled I could almost always get on the net, though sometimes it
required a long distance call. That was very nice. No hassles with
remembering a zillion passwords or maintaining proprietary security
software. Oh sure, there were some bad children but they were few and far
between.

I'd like to see WiFi progress in the same direction. There are terabits
of idle broadband bandwidth just sitting there going to waste. It costs
the subscriber nothing to let others use what he isn't. Bandwidth truly
is a "use it or lose it" affair. The world will be a much nicer place
when we can have WiFi connectivity almost everywhere.

Another datapoint. I'm in the restaurant biz and offer free hot spot
service. I was recently talking to another restaurant owner, one who has
offered free wireless ever since the first Apple Airport became available.
She told me that they've NEVER had any misuse of the connection.

My philosophy is, don't fix something that ain't broken and don't waste
time addressing a problem until it is evident that there really is a
problem.

John
---
John De Armond
(E-Mail Removed)
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
Cleveland, Occupied TN

I wouldnt worry about it guy..

Robin wrote:
> WEP and WPA encryption; that is to prevent someone from
> within the physical range of your wireless signal from
> joining your network, correct? It does not provide any
> added internet security. Is there a good reason to go
> through the trouble of setting it up, if there are no homes
> or roads within physical range of your wireless network?
>
>

I completely agree with you, John and Cox. There should be an open
internet where everyone can surf. In NYC there are lots of open wifi
spots in the parks, buildings, coffee shops, and restaurants and even
at my old university, LSU. However, it is up to the individual on their
security settings. You have to realize whatever the individual is
doing on your network can be traced back to you. I live in an apartment
complex in NYC. There is about a dozen of wlans in the building, but
you have to realize, I personally do you not want unknown users on my
wlan. However, I do have friends who have two wlans set up. 1
personally set up with security features, and another wlan open to the
public. That's an option and on the open wlan, they put in minimal
security, like a changed router password, and block out porn sites.

Also, I'm originally from New Orleans and my neighbor across the street
doesn't enable encryption. He's not worried because there are 80 year
old women living on the street. I don't think they'll be doing any
data sniffing. =)

So in conclusion, yes, it all goes back to your preferences. I don't
want to start an argument, but I personally believe in the theory of
least privileges and don't want any unknown users on my network.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>
> Also, I'm originally from New Orleans and my neighbor across the street
> doesn't enable encryption. He's not worried because there are 80 year
> old women living on the street. I don't think they'll be doing any
> data sniffing. =)
>
Until one of the nephews who is also a script kiddie comes to visit aunt
Martha with his laptop...


> So in conclusion, yes, it all goes back to your preferences. I don't
> want to start an argument, but I personally believe in the theory of
> least privileges and don't want any unknown users on my network.
>