A quick question from a noob on wireless

[vanibanez]

I have a D-Link DI-524 wireless. My main pc is connected via cable and a pc downstairs is wireless. I currently have changed the admin password, have WEP shared key with 128 bit encryption. I have a mac filter setup to only allow these two.

Would it be safe to share a folder between the two? mainly to transfer a file here and there. Or is it a little too risky. Let me know thanks.

[insanemonkey]

You should be fine to share a folder, with the mac filtering you should be safe. Really the all the WEP is going to do is keep out average joe from getting on your network. The MAC filtering is were your real security is at.

[TalRW]

MAC filtering is ok, but MAC addresses can be read with a packet sniffer and then spoofed. So that is not really where the real security comes from. I would suggest using WPA encryption if your hardware supports it.

[insanemonkey]

WPA can be cracked very quickly also, especially if you are injecting packets.

[TalRW]

mmm I hadn't heard this. I know WPA is prone to dictionary attacks but I hadn't heard about that. Either way it's apparent that no set of wireless security is fool proof. What you need to do is have a combination of secure measures. Secondly even if it's not 100% secure it makes you a harder target because if I was trying to get into someones network and I go by a secured one I might not waste my time when just next door there is a totally open AP that I don't have to bother breaking their security (hypothetical situation, I wouldn't actually do this to anyone I'm just trying to illustrate a point).

[insanemonkey]

Everything has some security flaw that can be exploited, if someone wants your information bad enough they can get it. The question is do you really have anything that someone is going to want. If you do then don't give it access to the internet or the rest of your network, even then you have to consider physical attacks. As for WPA cracking do a google search for it. It takes more time than WEP, but it can be done.

[vanibanez]

Excellent, thanks for all the good advice, I'll start checking out WPA.

[schnikies79]

WPA2 is pretty darn secure, more so than regular WPA.

What doesn't support WPA anymore? The only bit of hardware I have came across that didn't was a netgear bridge. My G4 iBook didn't when I got it, but with a update, it was fine.

[Leviathan41]

I use WPA2 and a random 63-character ascii key and do not broadcast the SSID. Seems to do the job.