Dude, where is your WEP?

[Rich Tate]

TechARP has an article up this morning pointing out the fact that the vast majority of Wi-Fi users still don’t run any form of encryption.

This clearly shows that although many people are beginning set up WiFi networks in their homes, many are still unaware of the security risks that they are exposing themselves to! In fact, on several occasions, I was even able to load up the router's administration console. It wasn't even protected with a custom password!

 

[ShnikeJSB]

I don't run any encryption. NOT because I don't know what I am doing, but because whenever I enable encryption, either the Intel Wireless card in my lapop and/or my D-Link router love to desync/disconnect randomly and frequently. It is a pain in the rear, and other problem seem to arise in addition to the disconnections. So, I just keep encryption off. Companies really need to sort out the hardware/software problems first... Hopefully the final 802.11n specs will help with that.

I wonder if this is a reason other people don't run encryption too?

 

[miskari]

is it really needed? for users that really dont have any sensitive material, or dont live in apartments where their neighbors are evil or something. I just have the passkey thing enabled, its supposedly not as secure as WEP encryption, but WEP is quite annoying as already posted.

 

[Ockie]

MAC filtering and dumb neighbors FTW!

 

[sirholio]

as soon as I went wireless, I set up my 2 computers and the router with WEP to see how it worked. It worked fine, so I've left it alone.

 

[just2cool]

Most of the people (95%) in my apartment complex use some sort of encryption, and (surprisingly) about 30% of them use WPA, including me. The sad thing is, the flawed WEP will be used for such a long time, and hackers can easily circumvent it. Although, at least it keeps the average curious neighbor off of your connection.

Penn State doesn't even use WEP. Instead, they leave it open and then force you to authenticate to a VPN with a student username/password before you can get to their network.

 

[onetwenty8k]

Most people also don't disable the guest access or admin default access so I can usually connect with the passwords "admin", "password", or "superman".

 

[thedude42]

Yeah, captive portal MAC/IP ACLS work just fine for internet access restrictions. nocatauth would be an even nicer feature (smoothwall implements it). Ultimately, most people don't even understand why securing their network is necessary.

With windowsXP service pack 2 default settings, unless the person is explicitly sharing files no one can access even their admin shares (provided they haven't already downloaded and run a virus opening them up to an exploit).

The only reason I put captive access on my WLAN is to prevent people who might connect to do something not-so-legal or leech my bandwidth for downloading. Granted, I also keep wireless on a separate subnet without access to the wired LAN, protecting that access with TLS VPN. The transparent proxy ensures I have a log of all web activity so I can cut people off if I know they are doing something I don't want to be a part of (all port 80 traffic gets routed to the proxy).

Whenever I need to test something I have built or configured, I enjoy having access to the open WLANS in my neighborhood. I can fire up my laptop, connect to them, and see if any of my remote solutions are working properly.

I put my VOIP phone number on my SSID in case anyone wants to request access. I have only ever gotten one call living in my old apartment from some idiot asking me why I put my phone number on my access point. (apparently, "for access: xxx-xxxx" didn't click on in his mind why I might have done this).

 

[swatbat]

MAC filtering and dumb neighbors FTW!

Pretty much. If they can get past that wep will not stop them. WPA is better but really not worth the hassell for me(have some old stuff that will not support it). Neighbors are not smart enough to figure it out anyway.

 

[ComputerBox34]

I use MAC Filtering and WPA as well. WEP is a pain and it's easier to remember a password rather then go looking for a code. The biggest problem I have with wireless networks is interference from cordless phones, other people's networks, and wireless speakers. Can get real irritating sometimes trying to find the right frequencies to broadcast on.

 

[thedude42]

IThe biggest problem I have with wireless networks is interference from cordless phones, other people's networks, and wireless speakers.

Yeah, I purposefully bought a 5GHz phone for that reason. When my sister was buying a baby monitor for her first child, I had an absolute fit trying to find one for her because most of them didn't post their operating frequency on the box. With so many wireless devices on the market today you'd think the proverbial "they" would be considering this fact and engineering around the new "wireless lifestyle".