Haslett, Andrew
andrew.haslett at ilc.gov.au
Thu Oct 30 21:06:28 CST 2003
>From a forum I frequent: ********************************** 1) Use 128 bit WEP. 2) Use an obscure WEP key. 3) Don't use the default WEP key number (usually the first, either 0 or 1). 4) Use MAC address filtering 5) Hide the SSID. 6) Have an obscure SSID, not one that easily identifies your location (for example, use a random string of 20 characters). 7) Turn off your router's DHCP server and use manually, statically assigned IP addresses. 8) Change the subnet that your network operates on from the default one. 9) Change the IP of the router to something other than .254 or .1. 10) Change the frequency that your wireless network operates on from something other than the default (usually 6 or 1). I favour the highest channel that both your router and wireless network card can support, providing that there is no interference. If you really want to get paranoid, then you can consider changing any of the variable parameters listed above on a frequent basis. The best one to change would be the WEP key itself. Also, seeing as cracking WEP requires the capture of a large number of packets, you can help to limit this concern by doing large file transfers and downloads on wired computers rather than wireless ones. ************************************** Cheers, Andrew -----Original Message----- From: John Colby [mailto:jcolby at colbyconsulting.com] Sent: Friday, 31 October 2003 12:10 PM To: Database Advisors Inc. (Tech); AccessD Subject: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of) I ordered a Netgear MR814v2 Wireless router a couple of weeks ago. I needed to expand my 4 port router (I had 5 things I kept needing to plug in) and the Netgear was on sale at www.Newegg.com at the time. I then tried and failed to install a linksys WPC11v2.5 I had laying around, so I ordered a dlink dwl-650 that was on sale (rebate) at www.newegg.com. Long story short, it didn't work. Long story a little longer, a very long call to dlink tech support, did not solve the problem. Or maaaaaybe it did. After failing to figure anything out, they recommended that I upgrade my laptop bios. It's an ancient (now) 233mhz PII Toshiba Satellite 4000 that I bought with my first paycheck from my trip to work for Mr. Breen in Dublin Ireland back in hmmm..... November 1997? Getting a bit long in the tooth, truth be told. The bios upgrade and also the old "turn off NAV before installing etc. And "oh by the way, our card requires at least a 300 mhz processor. So I uninstalled, upgraded to the latest bios (May 2000?), turned off NAV, reinstalled the drivers and re-installed the card. Still no joy. The site survey showed no transmitters, and dlink tech support assured me that if there was a transmitter I would see it regardless. Ignorant liars! Went back in and reconfigured the card in the laptop for channel 11 (it defaulted to 3 and the router was on 11), played around with a couple of other things and boom, I see a transmitter. Went in to the router config page and changed the SSID and sure enough the thing I'm seeing on the laptop changes to match! Still no connection though. Rebooted, played around some more and suddenly (no clear idea why) I have a wireless connection, can browse my network and see the web. Yeaaaaa. Moral of the story, tech support generally sucks, play around, don't quit, and eventually the gods will reward you. Or not. Now, I need to know what to do to tighten this thing up so that others can't see my network. I'm a bit afraid to touch anything since I don't really know what I did to finally get it running. Can anyone walk me through tightening this up? John W. Colby www.colbyconsulting.com _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ ******************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may contain information protected by law from disclosure. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. No warranty is given that this email or files, if attached to this email, are free from computer viruses or other defects. They are provided on the basis the user assumes all responsibility for loss, damage or consequence resulting directly or indirectly from their use, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not.