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WPA defines the use of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as an additional replacement for WEP encryption. Because you may not be able to add AES support through a firmware update to existing wireless equipment, support for AES is optional and is dependant (sic) on vendor driver support.
WPA defines the use of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as an additional replacement for WEP encryption. Because you may not be able to add AES support through a firmware update to existing wireless equipment, support for AES is optional and is dependant (sic) on vendor driver support.
Just thought I'd keep the confusion going.
Thanks. I'll get clarification on this topic tonight, but my understanding is that while your connection is encrypted. that is, someone cannot easily access your connection itself..
The packets you send, is not. I'll try to illustrate what Im referring to:
WEP:
{START}{BIT 1}{BIT 2}{BIT 3}{BIT N}{END}
WPA:
{[(START)]}BIT 1 BIT 2 BIT 3 BIT N{[(END)]}
Thats my understanding of the differences, where WPA is harder to crack, but if you're sitting there watching the stream of data go by, you can pick numbers out of the air. Where as, with WEP, you must break the encryption before you can do that.
Again, I'll try to get clarification on this topic tonight. I too thought it was encrypted fully, but was informed otherwise by my friends.
okay, i'm confused on this wireless stuff. I got a new laptop and went wireless (newbie at this). I'm paranoid that I am not secure, when I look at my connection it says connected. At one point to day it said security enabled. How do I know for sure it is secure?
Has any one thought about MAC address Filtration. That is the most secure try that and prove me wrong.
you want layered security. MAC addressing by itself can still be defeated by sniffing the packets and finding out your mac address... and then change mine to match yours; send a session reset to your AP to knock everyone off, and then attaching to it. Is this practical for most home based network? Not really.... but there are some bored people out there.
Hence, you want all the measures indicated previously - SSID off, WPA2 on, AND Mac filtering. You can also set DHCP to reserve IP addresses, and decrease your subnet to only allow a limited amount of connections (this will not always match as it works in exponents of 2).
Is it flawless? No, nothing is completely secure, but these steps (not including the subnetting and DHCP reservations) are simple to implement and require no additional resources... so why not?
Oh - and WPA2 does encrypt the data. Not only that, it also encrypts the authentication mechanism (MIC). It is much more secure than WEP. Had TJX done the simple task of upgrading their AP's from WEP to WPA2... you would most likely not be reading about them.....
you want layered security. MAC addressing by itself can still be defeated by sniffing the packets and finding out your mac address... and then change mine to match yours; send a session reset to your AP to knock everyone off, and then attaching to it. Is this practical for most home based network? Not really.... but there are some bored people out there.
Hence, you want all the measures indicated previously - SSID off, WPA2 on, AND Mac filtering. You can also set DHCP to reserve IP addresses, and decrease your subnet to only allow a limited amount of connections (this will not always match as it works in exponents of 2).
Is it flawless? No, nothing is completely secure, but these steps (not including the subnetting and DHCP reservations) are simple to implement and require no additional resources... so why not?
Oh - and WPA2 does encrypt the data. Not only that, it also encrypts the authentication mechanism (MIC). It is much more secure than WEP. Had TJX done the simple task of upgrading their AP's from WEP to WPA2... you would most likely not be reading about them.....
I don't secure my home connection. If you are close to me, you can use it. I don't care.
I'm with you. I knew a college kid who went around wardriving neighborhoods with a friend. No I don't really get why. He wasn't trying to hack anyone.
(Wardriving = driving around with a pringle can antenna to find wifi networks and hack into them).
His thing was: if you network was open, you were cool. Letting other use yours. So he would got to the next one. Security enabled? Then he would try to connect.
Of course if you are running a business I might want to secure it.
A combo of Mac Filtering (which is absolutey not 'unbeatable') and either WEP or WPA would be your best bet.
He is now a network engineer at the Cleveland Clinic. lol
Last edited by Peregrine; 07-23-2010 at 07:45 AM..
It can be hacked, I suppose. But the hacker will be "smarter than the average bear."
I've got network connections all over my house. My first router did not have wireless, so I just added a drop whenever we moved the furniture around.
Besides, I always heard that "network security" was an oxymoron.
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