Internal LAN questions...

[Phat_Penguin]

Drive around .... hang the expense .... check out this group of wireless enthusiasts in my State .... these guys didn't drive around they flew !!!!

War Storming Oz Style

My wireless connection was born out of necessity ... I couldn't get a high speed connection due to telecommunication restrictions etc etc .... so I have wireless'd to my sisters house in the next suburb and we share the DSL connection. We have been running it for about 4 months now and even though we were unknowingly exposed to the world we didn't have any problems, just lucky I guess ... not many people in the area knew what that upside down satellite dish on my roof was for

I did freak a bit when I found out we were not even WEP'd .... so thats where the AP came into play as I said above - went from an Ad-Hoc arrangment to a Managed network.

Wireless networking is fun - its a challenge and part of learning something new.

[OldRedFox]

Like others have said, you cannot secure a WLAN against a knowledgable wardriver, however, you can raise the hassle factor so that a casual one will slip past.

The first 3 MANDATORY steps are:

Turn off SSID broadcasting.
Change default SSID.
Enable MAC filtering.

However, these will not stop someone with even a modicum of WLAN experience from attaching to your AP. Still, even if they do attach, your real concern should be the security of your data. That's where WEP is supposed to come in. Enable it, by all means, but also be aware that even 128 bit encryp is breakable. But with all 4 of these measures what you have going for you is that the hassle factor is such that most (95%) of the wardrivers will pass on by and go find an easier target.

A final comment, if your router supports logging, have it email you that file regularly. This is no guarantee either, but it can usually tip you off to attempts.

Todd