Techy Help (going wireless)

[Anny Road]

Ive got a laptop which apparently is set up for wireless internet.

Mrs Road is fed up with me having cables running alll over the house and had told me to go wireless or else!

As a bit of a ludite when it comes to these things I was wondering if anyone can give me advice on what I need to buy.

From my limited research I guess I just need a router thing, plug it in and away I go. This seems far to easy and I assume there must be more to it than this.

Any help would be most welcome.

[Stouffer]

I would guess that you have a USB ADSL modem at the minute. In order to go wireless you will need a wireless modem/router (a modem and router in one box) something like this would do the job nicely. Netgear stuff is straight forward to set up and I think this model even works with AOL connection sharing.

[Anny Road]

Arhhh

Thanks Stouffer. I did not know I needed the Modem bit. I thought that was inside my laptop. Most helpful sir many thanks.

[Stouffer]

If you have a usb modem with a ethernet output you can connenct a wireless router directly. Unless you have a good idea about what you're doing (you need above average TCP/IP skills) your connection will be very insecure. Best to go with a modem/router for ease of use, stability and security.

[plonky]

Arhhh

Thanks Stouffer. I did not know I needed the Modem bit. I thought that was inside my laptop. Most helpful sir many thanks.

 

Assuming you have broadband, you do already have the modem. You could just buy a wireless router but I personally reckon its easier using an all in one and the model Stouffer mentions is very worthy.

 

If you have telewest broadband rather than ADSL then you need to buy just the wireless router. I can recommend this one Shop around for price of course

[Anny Road]

Assuming you have broadband, you do already have the modem. You could just buy a wireless router but I personally reckon its easier using an all in one and the model Stouffer mentions is very worthy.

 

If you have telewest broadband rather than ADSL then you need to buy just the wireless router. I can recommend this one Shop around for price of course

 

Im on Tiscali and have a USB modem at the minute which I connect to to the splitter in the phone socket with about 60 meters of phone cord. (not good).

Am I correct in assuming the comby routers will work with all ISP's

[RedinSweden]

Im on Tiscali and have a USB modem at the minute which I connect to to the splitter in the phone socket with about 60 meters of phone cord. (not good).

Am I correct in assuming the comby routers will work with all ISP's

 

I assume you have adsl, which means you must make sure that you get a combined router with ADSL modem. A cable/dsl combination will not work. As long as it is an adsl modem then it will work. It is quite easy to set up,

 

This one from Zyxel seems good.

[Stouffer]

Yeah it should be fine. You'll need your logon username and password at hand tho'.

[Anny Road]

Thanks chaps most helpful.

[Uncle_Meat]

I've got a Linksys WAG54GS wireless router here which is just about to be taken to my friends computer shop to be sold as refurbished. Problem with it was flakey ADSL connection, which was solved with a firmware update.

 

Updated the firmware, left it hooked up on my connection to check stability, and thats it. 5 days solid connection with no drops/flakes/whatever. Works like a charm, dead easy to set up.

 

Quick specs.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linksys-Wireless-G-Gateway-SpeedBooster-WAG54GS/dp/B000BZU9SC

 

 

 

Make me an offer.

 

More ADSL wireless routers here.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.ASP?CatID=59&Category=Wireless&Thumbnails=yes

[Uncle_Meat]

Just spotted another one, if you have an eBay account.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-VOYAGER-2110-WIRELESS-ADSL-ROUTER_W0QQitemZ270046578620QQihZ017QQcategoryZ101270QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

This is the router that I use, and it's been shit hot for me over the last 2 years or so. I've left it on for weeks at a time, with no problems whatsoever.

[coop]

Get yourself good security as its a piece of piss hacking into the wirless network unless properly protected.

[Gav]

Get yourself good security as its a piece of piss hacking into the wirless network unless properly protected.

 

 

tis a piece of piss no matter what security you have ...especially for anyone that knows how to use linux ;)

[Uncle_Meat]

tis a piece of piss no matter what security you have ...especially for anyone that knows how to use linux ;)

 

 

Now even easier, especially for anyone who knows how to put a boot CD into their wireless-equipped laptop/desktop.

 

 

http://www.remote-exploit.org/index.php/Auditor_main

 

Always check your router logs to see if anyone has tried to access..

 

Here, anything to do with eBay/PayPal or generally anything sensitive over the interwebby, I use my desktop as it's wired into my router via Ethernet, just using the wireless laptop for general "not arsed" stuff.

[Uncle_Meat]

Now even easier, especially for anyone who knows how to put a boot CD into their wireless-equipped laptop/desktop.

 

 

http://www.remote-exploit.org/index.php/Auditor_main

 

Always check your router logs to see if anyone has tried to access..

 

Here, anything to do with eBay/PayPal or generally anything sensitive over the interwebby, I use my desktop as it's wired into my router via Ethernet, just using the wireless laptop for general "not arsed" stuff.

 

*edit-almost as my 10 mins had expired*

 

Caveat, my laptop wireless card is only WEP capable, hence the extra caution. Not that I expect any mad hackery around here...

 

Anyway,

 

Always hide your SSID, use the longest, most convoluted password you can think of with the strongest method of encryption. A 63 character password alongside WPA-AES can, theoretically, still be hit but the chances of someone having that amount of time, and being that persistant is quite remote. It's well enough to defeat 99.9% of script-kiddies anyway.

[DJLJ]

tis a piece of piss no matter what security you have ...especially for anyone that knows how to use linux ;)

No it isn't. It is VERY hard to break into if you know what you're doing, unfortunately not very many knows how to secure a wireless setup really well. WPA2 authenticated against a radius server with a Mysql/LDAP backend, and inside this a RSA securID setup goes a long way.

[Gav]

No it isn't. It is VERY hard to break into if you know what you're doing, unfortunately not very many knows how to secure a wireless setup really well. WPA2 authenticated against a radius server with a Mysql/LDAP backend, and inside this a RSA securID setup goes a long way.

 

Ethereal/Wireshark Can detect passwords and all sorts of info.Can detect so much that you can tell what someones MSN/Yahoo user nickname is from it.Works better on a Unix platform but the windows one is ok

 

http://www.ethereal.com/

[Anny Road]

Ethereal/Wireshark Can detect passwords and all sorts of info.Can detect so much that you can tell what someones MSN/Yahoo user nickname is from it.Works better on a Unix platform but the windows one is ok

 

http://www.ethereal.com/

 

speaking in normal (non geek) langauge am I leaving myself more open to hacking by going wireless at home

[Uncle_Meat]

Ethereal/Wireshark can only display what is in each data packet. It can give you info over a wired network where the data is not encrypted.

 

The main problem with wireless is so many users don't even have basic security on their routers. I've got a wireless card in my PDA which I geek around with at times. Near Auntie Meats dads house in Cwmbran there are 4 wireless networks I can log into, use and in one case (as they have shedloads of shared folders), snoop on as they have fuck all protection.

 

Use WPA, use MAC filtering, use the most obfuscated password you can find (Google for Diceware).

 

Thats well enough to defeat 99.9% of potential attacks, and I'm sure the remaining .1% have got far better things to spend their time upon than a home-setup.

[DJLJ]

Ethereal/Wireshark Can detect passwords and all sorts of info.Can detect so much that you can tell what someones MSN/Yahoo user nickname is from it.Works better on a Unix platform but the windows one is ok

 

http://www.ethereal.com/

Or use tcpdump if you want the raw bites or tcpflow if you want it shown as human readable text, or use etherpeek which has additional info that can be easier, i.e. network ports, graphs etc.

 

But all that requires there isn't any encryption on the wireless part, i.e. you need to break the wireless encryption first, WEP is the weakest, you just need 1 gig of data captured, then you can crack the encryption, it has been done and proved by the FBI to only take 3 minutes. WPA is much more secure, if we consider a bruteforce attack on WPA-PSK, with 60 attempts per second, it will take 6.5x10^35 times the age of the universe. However you wouldn't use a bruteforce attack on WPA-PSK, unless you are just going through an hour or two of attempting with dictionaries etc.

 

WPA-Enterprise, which is based on AES encryption hasn't been cracked as far as I know, which is what I have setup as my outer encryption. Then inside that is a 2048 bit encryption SSL VPN tunnel.

[Anny Road]

Or use tcpdump if you want the raw bites or tcpflow if you want it shown as human readable text, or use etherpeek which has additional info that can be easier, i.e. network ports, graphs etc.

 

But all that requires there isn't any encryption on the wireless part, i.e. you need to break the wireless encryption first, WEP is the weakest, you just need 1 gig of data captured, then you can crack the encryption, it has been done and proved by the FBI to only take 3 minutes. WPA is much more secure, if we consider a bruteforce attack on WPA-PSK, with 60 attempts per second, it will take 6.5x10^35 times the age of the universe. However you wouldn't use a bruteforce attack on WPA-PSK, unless you are just going through an hour or two of attempting with dictionaries etc.

 

WPA-Enterprise, which is based on AES encryption hasn't been cracked as far as I know, which is what I have setup as my outer encryption. Then inside that is a 2048 bit encryption SSL VPN tunnel.

 

Tech, geek, tech. geek ,

 

 

Overload.

(scanners)Head

Booooooooooopmph

[Uncle_Meat]

Tech, geek, tech. geek ,

 

 

Overload.

(scanners)Head

Booooooooooopmph

 

Check what security your wireless laptop will support. In order of "secureness", WEP/WPA/WPA2.

 

Buy a router that also supports the highest grade of security that your laptop supports.

 

Hide your SSID (obvious when in the router setup page), enable MAC filtering (also easy from the setup page). This will stop the casual browser, like me and my PDA/Laptop, for example.

 

Use the biggest, most random fuck-off password you can for your WPA/WPA2 password.

 

That'll be enough to stop all but the most serious hacker, and as before hackers with the patience, skill and kit to do all that will have far more interesting things to do than hack a simple home setup to see what stuff you're posting on here..

[Stouffer]

Wireless connections can be tapped into a piece of piss if you have the right software. It doesn't matter what crypto you use, you can get in. There are secure wireless connections, however these aren't commercially available.

 

I would never do anything financially or personal with a machine that is ever going to be connected to any network wirelessly.

[Stouffer]

Early morning piss (the orange stuff) works good. If you've got TCP/IP linux experience clear piss can be used.

[Michael Howard]

I went wireless with a BT wireless modem/router thingy and wireless card. Took me a couple of goes but then has been a dream.

 

Till last night. No fuckin idea what happened just won't connect to ISP anymore. Long phone call to BT helpdesk tonight me thinks. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH.