Just a post for people thinking about going wireless... what do I think about it? I feel its safe. If you get the right router people will be able to get in but be in hacker limbo unless there extreamly skilled, and those people probably wont hack you but go after bigger fish (unless you are a big fish)

What do you think?

Yes,I agree,Because with all of the cords being used for non-wireless,enables people to trip and get hurt.The only thing is some Router's have a length to them so I check each time I buy one how far I am able to go.Be sure to check that,also some internet companies don't have extentions for wireless computers.But from befor about triping,what happins when you trip?You bring the computer down with you.You could spend thosands of dolors just for being non-wireless.Just my opinion.

@iVTEC: Hehe, realists opinion. Come to think about it, tripping to wires is far more likely than to lose something valuable to hacker attack. But in the security world, we need to go with the worst case scenario.


Just to generally say something about wireless security: being wireless, i.e. the signals are travelsing in the air all around, is always less secure. Yes, you can listen to electric wires without cutting the cord with the help of induction, and it's not even that hard, but you still need to dig that cable up and in mean time stay unnoticed. With wireless, just drive your care to the parking lot, open laptop, stick the antenna out and start listening. Listening to all wireless communication, even short range as Bluetooth and RFID is bloody easy, even fron significantly longer ranges than the actual appliance ranges (Bluetooth can be listened miles away with special equipment). You don't get the physical protection of concrete walls or floors or 6 feet of ground. That leaves it all on the encryption.

Speaking of specific wireless technologies, the in-built encryption methods have significantly improved. WCDMA mobile technologies are lot more secure that 2nd generation networks (the GSM network we use here in Europe has no actual security in it). WPA in WLAN is at the moment actually working encryption method, unlike WEP. So the in-built security methods are in a decent level now, compared to what it was few years ago.

Also, the increased speed of the wireless networks does allow much stronger encryptions to be used inside the channel without the actual payload traffic getting slowed down. To put it in a sentence, more speed more encryption possible. The problem with this is that while the nice technologies are available and work well on the fast connections, people don't bother to use them. People still use unencrypted FTP and ignore SSL/TLS on email settings. Not to mention the increasingly popular instant messengers of which some don't even offer encryption possibility... And guess what, people send those credit card numbers and other sensitive info no matter how much Microsoft warns them.

For a "normal person" a secure wireless connection is available and with ease. Secure the channel if adequate method is available (i.g. WPA not WEP) and then secure the traffic inside (i.e. SCP not FTP). IF you are aware of these and use it like that, you got yourself a safe wireless connection.

I still keep a wired network. However, I'm leeching off someone's open router right now. THe main reason why I have a wired network is I need the gigabyte speed for xgrid rendering.

i tihink that wireless is safe if you have got a safely password..

I love my wireless from the moment I set it up over a year ago (yeah, it took me that long to get in the flow ). I think it's safe enough for me to work in. Nothing is 100% safe. As long as you are transmitting data, it can be intervened and "stolen". Having some encryption will help a bit:

WEP is basically very weak and can be broken into without much work with the software we have out there these days. WPA is a bit more difficult to crack, but again, not 100% safe at all. I have WPA enabled on my router once I updated the firmware (supported WEP only before).

Like you said initially though, if there is a hacker that's determined to attack you, they will be able to do this...eventually.

These are the things that you might want to do:

- disable your SSID from being broadcasted
- change your SSID to something different than what it came with originally
- change the login password for your router
- enable WPA encryption (or at least WEP if you don't have WPA)
- enable MAC address filtering

Doing all these will stop a newbie "hacker". There are tools available that can get all these information from your router very easily.

It depends on how many devices you are going to be networking really, in my opinion you should ditch wireless and get some wired panels installed into your house, then use a wired network. There are a number of good points that a wired network has over a wireless one:

1. Speed, wired networks are faster because it doesn't need to travel through air

2. Security, you really need physical access to the devices and the house if the cables are routed through the roof etc to hack into it, even still if you use a router the hackers still going to need to set it up. In short a wired network is MUCH harder to hack without being detected.

3. Reliability, wired networks don't drop out or lose signals. What i've found is that some wireless network routers say they can go up to like 10 meters. Yeah sure that's the case when you first start using it but it decreases with age. It's really dependant on the quality of the router.

Unless you have a laptop or something then you might want to get a small wireless router just for the laptop, even still if they hack into the communication between the laptop and the router they can get into the network if they can get all the passwords right. If you use a wired/wireless combo's and you set it up right there will be 2 passwords to hack to gain access to the entire network.

Simply - go wired

-HellFire

I have a wireless router that simply routes our internet connection through and I think it is great.
I just about always have a strong connection from my room (which is right next to the router) and have a good connection, if not excellent, all around the house.

I have enabled WPA encryption, MAC address filtering and it no longer broadcasts the SSID. I am not that concerned about security as my town is very small, some 400 people, of those 400 people around 3 would have sat up a wireless network and regularly use it (including me) as well as the community hall (I picked up the signal once).
I really don't think anybody would know how to set up wireless on their laptop let alone hack into my internet connection.

Wireless routers are definitely the way to go for home networking solutions if the home isn't already wired for CAT-5. I bought my first wireless router a few years ago when 802.11b was the fastest it could potentially go. Nowadays there is Wireless-B, Wireless-A, Wireless-G, Wireless-A/B, Wireless-G with MIMO, etc, etc. Obviously the speeds have increased as technology gets better.

But the one thing I haven't noticed increasing is the level of security. Aren't most default WEP/WAP keys encrypted at 128-bits? I'm going off the top of my head, but I don't know of any routers that are using 258-bit encyrption.

If someone does get a wireless router, there are a few things you absolutely NEED to do first before you assume everything is setup correctly.

1. Disable SSID broadcasting. This is basically a the signal your router emits to let other wireless devices know that it is there. You do NOT want other people to know that there is an available wireless router. This needlessly increases the number of pings to the router and exposes it to potential hacker intrusion.

2. ALWAYS use encryption to protect your wireless router. If it only be simply 64-bit encryption, then so be it. However keep in mind that the higher the bits the "tougher" the protection. This will keep low level war drivers out of your network and using up your bandwidth. Be aware that even if you have encryption enabled, it will not keep out sophisticated hackers out of your network. There are tools available that are called packet sniffers. This means that this tool will collect packets of data out of the air which are transmitted. The packets of data are each encrypted with the WEP or WAP key. After enough packets are collected, then the tool should be able to decrypt the packets and finally be able to give you the key to access the router. So don't always believe that your wireless router is hacker proof.

3. Change the default login and password. Even if you hide the router from other wireless devices, the listings of factory default passwords are available online. So if I know the brand and model number of your wireless router, I can look for the default login and password to access it.

That's all I know about wireless routers, so take my advice and protect your network.

Any encryption, as has been stated before, is better than none. Unless you have files that would be of direct interest to people (such as important business files) if two networks are in the area, and one is encrypted, and the other isn't, 9 times out of ten (or more) the unencrypted network will be accessed. However, if only one encrypted network is in the area, it will probably be accessed if possible. That being said, WEP encryption, even WEP-128 bit has been hacked. WPA (I beleive) has also been recently hacked, but it is much harder and more time consuming to do so. So I recommend WPA encryption if you can. Also, don't share files between computers that are of sensitive nature unless you need access to them from all the computers in your home. If files aren;t shared, even if someone gets into the network, they will have a hard time getting access to the files. So if you are careful, wireless networks are very secure.

~Viz