WEP Programs

[Snag219]

Hi, I am trying to TEST my WEP Security Settings. Do you guys know what program this guy is selling?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MESE:IT&viewitem=&item=300107154472&rd=1&rd=1

I might buy it, but it would be better if I find the program for FREE! Wondering if any of you guys would know. I am trying to do this to TEST my WEP Security.. not anything else!

 

[Outlaw Programmer]

You're not going to be happy with what I have to say...

Save your money because WEP is essentially a pointless security measure. Unless it uses rotating keys (and I haven't seen an affordable version of this in the consumer market), all it does is slow down your throughput. 128-bit WEP can be broken in just a couple of minutes by using easily obtainable software. How? By analyzing a stream of your "encrypted" packets.

My advice: If you want to keep people from seeing *what* you're doing, turn off WEP and use a VPN connection if possible (although this is more difficult to set up and you need a decent router). Keep in mind that with VPN, you can only communicate with the VPN endpoint, and the rest of your LAN will be invisible to you.

If you just want to keep other folkjs from using your WAP, configure it to allow only 1 connection from a computer with a specific MAC address.

Oh yeah, not transmitting your SSID doesn't help with security either. It makes it a little more difficult, but this also can be discovered via hacking the wireless packets.

Wireless kinda sucks, huh?

 

[Dominion]

Or you could just not worry about tons of encryption and only allow certain MACs onto your network. As long as your router doesn't get hacked it will be difficult for someone to get on. Granted, if they're determined there is an easy way to get around this type of security but oh well.

 

[DyeMatrix]

what?

 

[AquaFRESH]

I use WEP but Outlaw is right, it's not very secure against someone who wants to break it. It just keeps my neighbors off my network, and I was too lazy to set up specific MAC connections.

 

[BREAK_EM_OUT_JONES]

use wpa security. This way the passwords are easier to set.

 

[AquaFRESH]

Actually, I lied/wasn't paying attention. I use WPA2 encryption. And, yeah, it's easy to set up and it's more secure.

 

[Jeffwa]

Wireless is never secure, period. You can make it more secure, but unless you do some type of secure tunnel, it will never be as secure as a physical connection. The added overhead of tunneling on a wireless connection, of anytype, isn't worth it IMO.

Here's my advice - use WPA with TKIP (or WPA2 if your devices support it), turn on MAC address filtering and hide your SSID.

WPA or WPA2 w/TKIP is about the only thing that will create a huge hurdle for anyone trying to grab traffic off your wireless network. It is still crackable, but someone would have to REALLY want your data to bother cracking it. Don't even think about using WEP encryption - as Outlaw pointed out, it can be cracked in minutes.

Hiding your SSID is pretty pointless...it's easy to grab SSID's that aren't broadcast, but it will at least make you look like less of a target.

MAC address filtering is the most pointless of all, seeing that spoofing MAC addresses is cheese. However, once again it makes you less of a target.