Wireless Network/Broadband

[C86]

I want my laptop and Pc to access broadband without them both being switched.

 

Do I need a Wireless Broadband modem or router?

 

My pc and laptop have wireless network cards.

 

Help/advice welcome.

 

MG

[Carlos]

router with built in modem?

[Apathy]

Yep you need a Router.

 

Be careful that you get the correct kind i.e. ADSL Router or a Cable Router, depending on what kind of broadband connection you have.

 

Also make sure that you get one with the same wireless network speed as your two existing cards use.

 

I have that set-up in my house and it works a treat. I can sit at the bottom end of the garden whilst still with an internet connection :D/

[C86]

router with built in modem?

 

Bought one and up and running.

 

What stops some red ginger accessing my ASDL from a Wireless Laptop?

 

Sorted out my network ok, nework key, SSID etc. but the ASDL is a bit confusing

 

Advice, help. beer ?

 

MG

[Apathy]

They can't access your ADSL connection, unless they can connect to your Router.

 

There are a few ways to prevent this.

 

1. Change the SSID name of your network, and turn off the broadcasting of the name. (If the hacker doesn't know the name, he can't connect to the Router)

 

2. You can turn on on the WEP encryption (password), so that to connect to the Router your PC need to provide the password. Once set up, this is done automatically once set up (sounds like you may have already done this, as you mentioned network key )

 

3. Your Router will have an 'Access list' where you can specify exactly which devices are allowed to connect to it. This is easily done as each network device in the world has its own unique MAC address, and you just tell the Router the MAC addresses of your PC's.

 

Personally I'd do all 3, and unless you have 1337 h4x0R living nearby you will be fine.

[Gonk]

Excerpt from a lesson in home wireless networking on CNet help.com

 

When talking about security for a wireless network, you have to think about two main threats:

 

Internet-based threats

Wireless-based threats

Internet-Based Threats

 

The first type of threat involves someone on the Internet getting access to your home network by slipping through your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) routers or firewalls and copying, damaging, taking over, or changing your files or systems. Although this may seem like a remote possibility, you could be a candidate for malicious behavior if you are:

 

A highly-placed executive in government or business who brings work home

A public persona or celebrity in your town or area

A person of means or wealth (even if it's just perceived)

There's also a good chance that you may be randomly targeted by someone who doesn't even know you.

 

In any case, your first line of defense from an Internet-based attack is your ISP. They should have routers and firewalls that block your machine's IP (Internet Protocol) address (your unique address on the Internet) to keep attackers from targeting you directly. Your ISP should also be monitoring all Internet traffic to make sure nothing malicious is happening.

 

If an Internet-based attacker does get through, you can prevent further damage or harm by installing a personal firewall on each machine in the network. Although this may seem redundant (after all, your ISP is probably running a firewall, too), personal firewalls can keep some bad things from happening.

 

Wireless-Based Threats

 

A more likely threat is someone accessing your wireless network directly. Unfortunately, this can be as easy as someone driving around neighborhoods with a wireless laptop trying to pick up available broadcasts. (This activity, by the way, is called war driving, which is similar to the much earlier practice of war dialing -- using a computer to call all numbers on an exchange to see which ones were faxes, modems, and other exploitable devices.)

 

After gaining access to your network, a war driver can do any number of activities, including:

 

Add, edit, or delete files

Snoop on your traffic (to pick up your credit card numbers and other sensitive information)

Surf the Internet on your dime

Perform malicious attacks on Web sites and make it look as though you did it

Now that you've thought a little about all of that, it's time to break down what you must do, what you should do, and some additional little tricks to secure your network

 

Make sure that you change the administrative password on your wireless access point. It's well known, for example, that Linksys access points ship from the factory with admin as the password. The IP address of these access points on an individual network is also well known. Anyone sitting in front of your house could easily take over your network because of this.

 

After you've done that, disable remote management of your access point. This keeps folks on the Internet from slipping in and trying to mess with your access point.

 

Next, turn off SSID (Service Set Identification) broadcasting from your access point. Although SSID makes it easy for anyone to set up a laptop for some fun wireless gaming, it also allows anyone out there to pick up your broadcast and join your network.

 

Last on the list of things you must do is turn on WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). It's not perfect (it has many documented problems and holes), but it's better than nothing. It involves setting a 64-bit or 128-bit encryption key on your access point or router. Any machine that wants to be part of that network must enter the key to join.

 

You can find out more about WEP online by visiting the 80211 Planet article: 802.11 WEP: Concepts and Vulnerability.

 

Generally speaking, the longer your encryption key, the more time it takes to encrypt and decrypt traffic on your wireless network. Security experts use the term overhead to describe encryption's effect on general network speed. Although 128-bit encryption effectively doubles overhead as compared to 64-bit encryption, network speed is still fast with either.

 

TIP

Very good hackers can usually break these kinds of encryption keys with off-the-shelf tools, but the idea is to make your wireless network less appealing as a target.

 

 

You usually have two choices for creating encryption keys:

 

Typing in a series of hexadecimal or ASCII numbers/letters (such as AfAfB6c3D1)

Typing in a passphrase (such as retired us military) that then generates a set of keys

 

WARNING

Don't use the preceding key or passphrase now that you've seen them published here; so has the hacker community!

 

 

 

After you have a set of keys, you need to add it to every machine on the network. You can do this by right-clicking your wireless connection (usually visible in the system tray in the lower-left corner of the screen) and adding it to the network key field

 

 

If you've followed the previous advice, your home network is more secure than 80 percent of home wireless networks (percentage based on study conducted by a hacker group). Still, there's no rest for the wicked. This section covers some other actions you should take to make your wireless home network even more secure.

 

Set up MAC-based security: The MAC (Media Access Control, not the Apple type of computer) layer is about Ethernet cards, physical machine addresses, and devices. Some routers and access points allow you to set a range of allowable MAC addresses on your network. Although this can become a big management exercise on a big network, it effectively allows only those machines you want.

Disable or limit DHCP: DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) allows machines to get their own IP addresses after they join your wireless network. This can be handy for adding new machines to the network, but can also make it easier for your friendly neighborhood war driver to exploit your network.

Some ISPs require that you keep DHCP running at all times for management purposes. If this is the case, you might not be able to implement this change. If that's the case, ignore the next point.

 

Don't use the default IP address range provided by the equipment: Most routers or access points ship with a built-in 10.1.1.x or 192.168.1.x network. The first machine on the network is given a .1 address (such as 192.168.1.1), the second machine, a .2 address, and so on. See how easy that is to guess? But a default starting network of 10.232.5.x is a different story.

Security: Other Tricks

 

The following are some other tricks you can do to boost your wireless network security:

 

Change your SSID every few months. This can be annoying and tedious because you have to change it on your access point and every machine that uses the network.

Change your encryption key every few months. Ditto on the annoying and tedious.

Keep your wired and wireless LANs segregated, each with their own firewalls or routers that only funnel appropriate traffic. You have to worry about this only if you have a fairly large network at home.

If you want to be sure that you're secure, buy a program such as NetStumbler and try to hack into your own network. This process can uncover all kinds of possible vulnerabilities and exploits.

[C86]

Ta

 

Many Thanks =D>