Wifi Security
This is a belated response to Mikal‘s response to my post about going wireless. I just wanted to state that I’m currently using WPA which changes it’s keys quite often after a certain number of packets have been sent (unlike WEP which has to be changed manually).
I was a bit bored on the way back from work the other day, so I decided to do a little experiment. I plugged in my wifi card into my laptop, and left the laptop running with NetStumbler turned on.
The experiment? To count how many secured and how many unsecured wireless access points on the way home. (Yes, I wasn’t driving).
Result:
17 secured Access Points. (6 of which had SSID broadcast turned off).
12 unsecured Access Points. (2 of which had SSID broadcast turned off).
I didn’t try to connect to any of them, so wouldn’t know if any of them had some sort of VPN or even MAC filtering.
Quite interesting that there were more secured than insecured, because I thought that the results may have been the other way around. Good to see that they do have some sort of security. I would say something is better than nothing.
Also, one thing of note, I’ve set my wireless router to not accept connections to it that are non-108 (G on Turbo mode). So they may well be able see my network, but they can’t see my SSID. And unless their card is operating at 108Mbps they won’t be able to connect. I still will say that the most determined of “stumblers” may well find a way through all my settings, however that’s like finding a needle in a hay stack. It’s possible, but it may take you a little while!
On another note, 2 more sleeps and I’m turning a year older (turning 22).
And on yet another note, i’m considering making one of these Free Antennas. Well, it’s sort of like a wireless antenna extender. Just have to construct it yourself. Since I have some time, I might do it this weekend 