Watch That Network!
December 2, 2003
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Posted by Aubrey Turner
If you’re running a wireless network at home it’s always a good idea to enable WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). If not enabled, of if enabled with an easily guessable password, anyone who can get within range of your access point will be able to access your network. This could allow them the ability to access network shares on your PCs (if you have any enabled) or even for them to use your broadband connection.
While it’s tempting to think that having someone “borrow” your broadband connection is relatively harmless, consider this.
Wireless security for home networks is in the spotlight following an unusual arrest in Canada, where a man stands accused of downloading child pornography over a hijacked Wi-Fi connection.
Toronto police said they stopped a car last week for a traffic infraction when they found the driver naked from the waist down with a laptop computer on the front seat, playing a pornographic video that had apparently been streamed over a residential wireless hot spot. The driver was charged with possession, distribution and creation of child pornography, as well as theft of telecommunications—a first in Canada, according to local authorities.
If the “authorities” decided to trace your broadband usage, it would be difficult for you to prove that you didn’t access the child porn site (although forensic analysis of your computer would not show any evidence that you accessed it, that wouldn’t necessarily exonorate you, since they’d have evidence to show that the stream came through your router).
While it wouldn’t land you in jail and get you listed as a sex offender, another possible problem would be if a wardriver used your connection to send spam. Since almost every ISP outlaws spam as part of their AUP (Acceptable Use Policy), and the spam would have your IP address on it, they’d just assume that you sent it and cancel your account. You would have a difficult time proving otherwise, unless the spammer was caught in the act (and they’re a lot less likely to be sitting outside your house with their pants down 
).
Categories: Computing
We have a Linksys wirelessrouter, but we’re networking neophites. Where can we get more info on this topic?
The first place to start is in the manual that came with the router, which with the Linksys is a PDF file on the included CD-ROM.
But the short course is that you will need to enable WEP. You have a choice of two levels of encryption. I’m using the higher level, 128-bit. You will need to create a key that will be used all of your wireless devices (i.e. the router and any PCs/laptops). If you’re using all Linksys devices, you can use a passphrase instead of the key (the key is fairly nasty).
Here’s a Linksys Knowledge Base article on setting up security:
[Rank, 50:[Sum: WEP][Merge: [Thesaurus: WEP]]]&infobase=linksysrev.nfo&record;=&softpage=IKW_ENU_JDocView”][url=http://kb.linksys.com/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=51005&QuestionText=WEP&SelectName1;=&advquery;=]http://kb.linksys.com/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=51005&QuestionText=WEP&SelectName1;=&advquery;=[s][Rank, 50:[Sum: WEP][Merge: [Thesaurus: WEP]]]&infobase=linksysrev.nfo&record;={3DC}&softpage=IKW_ENU_JDocView[/url]
Thanks Aubrey.
You should also be able to designate by MAC address which wireless clients you will allow to connect through your access point.
I use both MAC and WEP 128.
Is there any value to not broadcasting the SSID?
I’m not sure. It would certainly make it more difficult to attach to the network if they had to know the SSID ahead of time. On the other hand, I like the convenience of the ability to discover the network when a new device is brought in (I then just need to enter the WEP key when prompted).