[MLB-WIRELESS] Somewhat off-topic - help getting WinXP wirelessWPA 2 and networking working.

[gabrielle harrison and Paul van den Bergen]

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:48:44 +1000, Shibby <shibby at internode.on.net> wrote:

> Can you connect with no encryption turned on?
>
> If yes....Maybe use Mac Address filtering instead of WPA?

*sigh*

here is the lowdown on wireless security...

Unsecured wifi can be used by anyone.
WEP can be broken in under 5 minutes at 128 bit
Mac address does not help as any sniffer can see the mac address in plain
text and spoof it.
Apparently WPA can have a packet forgery attack used against it and the
WPA spec says the access point must shutdown for
60 seconds when they detect this, making a very simple DoS attack against
WPA-encrypted networks.
I'm sure there are already tools out there that automate the process.
Certainly WEP and MAC address = open channel and you can expect to have
your broadband quota drained fairly quickly.

distance is no object. I have in the shed a 24 DBi antenna with an
effective range of several 10's of km LoS...

WPA2 is encryption + authentication and is to date secure.
the thing is I don't really know how to set it up so I can't tell if it's
broken or if I'm just incompetent. :-)

candidates I've considered

firewall problem
NAT problem
Windows sucking (WinXP SP2)




-- 
Dr Paul van den Bergen
Chance favours the prepared mind