Does anyone know of one?
Printable View
Does anyone know of one?
Email rance@dwx.com, he's my local OSX guru. Tell him I sent you with the question. I'm sure he can offer some info.
Hi Wraith,
since your around I thought I would throw this question by you....
I have a wireless Linksys router in my house. My computer hooks right up to it, and I have my wife's computer patch in via wireless connection. Everything was fine until the next door neighbor purchased a wireless system, and now when he is on my wife gets inteference from his. It asks her to choose between the two networks.
What can I do about this?
I never would have guess the routers had this much distance...
Thanks,
DD
Several things. Your access points operate on channels. I believe the default for a Linksys out of the box is 6. You want to stagger your channels in any distributed environment, which most residentials are quickly becomming. Check what channel your access point is configured to use. If it's on Channel 1, move it to 6. If it's on Channel 6, move it to 11. If it's on Channel 11, move it to 1.Quote:
Originally posted by [AK]Devil_Dog
Everything was fine until the next door neighbor purchased a wireless system, and now when he is on my wife gets inteference from his. It asks her to choose between the two networks.
What can I do about this?
If you have OTHER access points on those other frequencies within range, you could ask your neighbor to turn down the broadcasting power of his AP, as it's range is obviously extending beyond his house. If you want a cheap and easy way to find out what access points (and what channels) are in use within your radio range, go to http://netstumbler.com and download NetStumbler. It's a freeware application that will listen for SSID broadcasts. It will report all access points within range and their associated settings, vendor, channel, etc.
I'd recommend moving your channel around, first. The other thing you could do is uniquely configure your wife's computer so that it doesn't scan for "Any SSID", thus it won't ask her to choose. I'd venture to guess your SSID is "Linksys", as is your neighbors. Make your SSID something unique, hard code her NIC to only associate/authenticate to that SSID - and you'll never have a problem with her being prompted.
If you're still overlapping channels you'll suffer performance degredation, collisions, etc. But, on the plus side, you can fire up a wireless sniffer and monitor where your neighbor is surfing. You can watch him check his email. And, if he has poorly configured Windows machines, you can even map drives to his shares and browse all the naked pictures of his wife.
You could then post them on his front door with a little note that says, "KEEP YOUR WIRELESS SIGNALS OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
This might be obvious, but don't forget to set up WEP encryption on your wireless access point or router. That will help keep the leachers off your wireless network and keep your data secure.
Ya, Ya... I know. WEP is crackable but you might as well at least TRY to make things more difficult for them.
- ROFL!!! :DQuote:
Originally posted by The Wraith
If you're still overlapping channels you'll suffer performance degredation, collisions, etc. But, on the plus side, you can fire up a wireless sniffer and monitor where your neighbor is surfing. You can watch him check his email. And, if he has poorly configured Windows machines, you can even map drives to his shares and browse all the naked pictures of his wife.
You could then post them on his front door with a little note that says, "KEEP YOUR WIRELESS SIGNALS OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
Thanks for the info Wraith! I will try that out.....
Thanks Bribo! Where do I go to get this?Quote:
Originally posted by [AK]Bribo
This might be obvious, but don't forget to set up WEP encryption on your wireless access point or router. That will help keep the leachers off your wireless network and keep your data secure.
Ya, Ya... I know. WEP is crackable but you might as well at least TRY to make things more difficult for them.
Of course, there are lots of resources and everyone has their favorites, but here is a link to a document entitled, "Wireless Networking Basic Security Checklist".Quote:
Originally posted by [AK]Devil_Dog
Thanks Bribo! Where do I go to get this?
Enjoy.
http://www.michiganwireless.org/tool...AN_Sec_Biz.pdf
http://forums.netstumbler.com/showth...?threadid=6492
WiFi FAQ
http://forums.netstumbler.com/showth...?threadid=5325
Techtarget.com 802.11 Learning Guide
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.c...?offer=news4.8
Or, you could also buy some books:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cover...security.s.gif
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/covers/802dot11.s.gif
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cover...commnet2.s.gif
Each of these books are very thin. 1/4 of an inch thick, at most.
I just realized, Beast and Faxman will probably remember Rance. Hell, he was in the DK many moons ago.Quote:
Originally posted by The Wraith
Email rance@dwx.com, he's my local OSX guru. Tell him I sent you with the question. I'm sure he can offer some info.
Thanks again Wraith!!! :)
Sure I remember the one and only Rev. Rance..."he ain't the hammer!" :cool: Thanks for the tip, Wraith, I'll drop him a line and ask him.
THE HAMMER!
wraith, i have a question for you. i've read from various sources that wireless security is a joke. they claim a secured wireless network is still easy to penetrate compared to a wired network; just use wardriving tools to figure out the ssid channel, wep encryption, and the mac address filter.
i'd like to know your take on this.
My take is, they're absolutely correct. WEP is crackable, it's just a matter of how many packets you need to sniff and how much time that will take. Bottom line is, you shouldn't use wireless networking for any data that is confidential. It's one thing to use it at home, to use it at a Starbucks, but it is not a network that you want confidential customer data running over, etc.
MAC filters are probably the best defense, but they are also easily circumvented by anyone who knows how to read the decode of a sniff dump. Which, isn't rocket science.
WiFi = convenient networking. It's security is swiss cheese.
Can you comment on 802.11B WEP versus 802.11G WEP. I've read the security is improved with "G".
Oh no...here we go again.
And no comments from the Peanut Gallery, please! :)
No, I can't. I'm completely ignorant about changes in WEP with "G". Haven't had the opportunity to sit down with a mass of hardware/software and dig through the engineering aspects. My knowledge (and comments) are really limited to "B". I have also heard security is improved, but I don't know "Why" or "How". I've read that the Wi-Fi Alliance, guardian of 802.11 wireless networking interoperability, has announced the first set of products that meet its Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security specification. But, I have no technical details on WPA in my brain.Quote:
Originally posted by [AK]Bribo
Can you comment on 802.11B WEP versus 802.11G WEP. I've read the security is improved with "G".
I was able to dig this information up:
I can speak towards 802.1x and TKIP, but not how their implementation impacts any wireless security products.Quote:
WPA, a subset of the 801.11i WLAN security specification, is set to replace the creaky Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) scheme used by wireless clients and base-stations to encrypt data to date. 802.11i is due to be ratified as a standard by the IEEE next year.
WPA builds on WEP by offering a Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), which constructs encryption keys in a more secure manner than WEP, which basically uses whatever you type in. WPA also uses the IEEE 802.1x wired and wireless protocol for authorisation and access control.
WPA-certified products will ship next month, the Wi-Fi Alliance said. For now it remains an optional certification, but the Alliance noted that it will become a required part of the certification process for "selected PC and PC peripheral products" later this year.
What products have been or are likely to be "selected", the Alliance didn't say, but the implication is that if you want to say your product is Wi-Fi compatible, you'll have to ensure WPA functionality.
The Wi-Fi Alliance also said yesterday it had begun a test programme to certify interoperability with the upcoming 802.11g standard. 802.11g remains a published specification, but has yet to be ratified by the IEEE. That ratification is expected in June. ®