wireless question

Currently I do not use wireless, my computer does not have a wireless card, but my router has wireless capability. I know very little about wireless. A friend came over and helped me set up the security on my router - just in case. Then we turned the wireless part off.

I have a question in case I ever do get a computer with a wireless card.

As I said, a friend came over and helped me set up security on my router. If I understand right, this is to prevent other people from being able to get onto my network.
Is that correct?

This may be a dumb quesion - but here goes.
Is there a way that the acutal signal can be intercepted. That is - if I was using wirelss - could someone intercept the signal from my computer to the routner or router to the computer?
Would they maybe be able to intercept passwords etc?

Thanks,
Fay

fay47 wrote:

A friend came over and helped me set up the security on my router - just in case. Then we turned the wireless part off.

If I understand right, this is to prevent other people from being able to get onto my network.
Is that correct?

This may be a dumb quesion - but here goes.
Is there a way that the acutal signal can be intercepted. That is - if I was using wirelss - could someone intercept the signal from my computer to the routner or router to the computer?
Would they maybe be able to intercept passwords etc?

Thanks,
Fay

To answer your questions, watch this You Tube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A88XB7_Jz7s

If you haven't secured your wifi with WPA or WPA2 instead of WEP, you should do so. You can provide even better protection by telling your wireless router that only the computer or ipad or iphone hardware with the MAC address(es) you specify in the Access Control part of your wifi router setup can have access to your wireless network. You can find the MAC address on the label on the back of your computer, or by the command ipconfig /all (will be specified as the "Physical Address"). With this setup, there is very little to worry about someone hacking into your private network.

Repa,

I have a netgear wireless-N 300 model: WNR2000v2

I got into my router and checked the settings
it is set for WPA-PSK(TKIP)+ WPA2-PSK(AES)
I don't really know anythng about that.

There is a place to enter settting for Gues Netowrk
and netgear suggests to set the option to: WPA2-PSK[AES]
I have not idea why it would be different than the regular setting

I did not see where to specify the MAC address - but I could have just overlooked it.
I will go back and look again later.

Also listened to the You Tube viedeo that you posted the linkd for.

None of it really answered my question.
I could just not be understaning - and missed what they were saying.
Maybe I am not asking the qustion properly
Or maybe it is just a really stupid question

I do need to kow all about proteting the network - and I have a lot to learn there and may have more questions.

But, my question is, even if you have you network seucre so that no one can get on the network, can someone still intercept a signal you are seinding. Even if they can not connec to to the netork to do anytying - can they "see" what you are transmitting.

Thanks
Fay

fay47 wrote:

I got into my router and checked the settings
it is set for WPA-PSK(TKIP)+ WPA2-PSK(AES)
I don't really know anythng about that.

WEP and WPA are encryption methods used to encrypt your transmitted data. WEP can be much more easily broken by hackers than WPA and therefore WPA should be used. This is encryption software installed to encrypt the messages between your computer and the access point, but it only covers the first step your packets will take across the Internet. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that on most wifi routers, you can prevent the transmission of the wifi router's SSID. Take a look at your instructions on where you might be able to do that on your router. If you unselect Allow broadcast of SSID in a router or access point, the SSID of that device will not be visible in another device's site survey, and must be entered manually. Not broadcasting the SSID adds a small bitg of security, but it is not a strong security measure, and should be used in conjunction with other security such as WPA.

But, my question is, even if you have you network seucre so that no one can get on the network, can someone still intercept a signal you are seinding. Even if they can not connec to to the netork to do anytying - can they "see" what you are transmitting.

The answer to your question is Yes! To understand this fully and how you might counter such attempts, read the following article:

https://ssd.eff.org/tech/wifi

The following website should prove very useful to you in configuring your Netgear wifi router:

http://documentation.netgear.com/dg834n/enu/202-10197-02/Wireless.4.4.html

Among other things, it tells you how to:

1. Turn off wireless connectivity completely.

2. Restrict access based on the wireless network name (SSID).

3. Restrict access based on the Wireless Card Access List (MAC Address).

4. Configure Mixed WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK Security

Hope this helps!

]

Repa,

I read the articles and still have questions. I am havng a hard time getting my head wrapped aorund this wirepess stuff.

Sounds like it is kind of like I thought. There are 2 basic concerns.
1. someone connecting to your network.
2. someone intercepting your transmission even if not on your network

Is that correct?
To prevent someone from connecting to the network
1. turn off wiredless altogether
or
2. turn off ssid broadcasting
I have a quieson here. In my router there are 2 places
a. under Advanced Wireless Settings
b. under Guest network settings
I don't undersntand it being in both places.
What is if is set one way one palce and other way the other place?

3. limit acess by Mac number

Is this correct?
I don't know if there is any way of preventing someone from intercepting a transmission but, to help prevent someone from being able to read what you are sending even if they do intercept
use encyption - in my case it is wpa2-psk(TKIP] + WPA2-PSK[AES]
You have to enter a passphrase - but I have no idea where the passphrase is used.
Can you tell me that?


Do you use wireless at all? If so, do you have your security/encrtypion set so that you are comfortable using it for bank transactions etec (when on you home network) or do you limite your wirell to things that dont need to be secured?

Right now I don't even have a wireless device. Bit, I have a friend that sometimes brings her wireless laptop over for me to show her things. There are some things I wanted to show her that will require her to be able to access the internet. So, I figued it was a good time for me to learn a little bit

Thanks for the links, I did get some information from then. Just feel a bit like my head is stating to spin with all this LOL

Playing with this concerns me a little more than other things, because of the security factor.


Fay

THe more I read the mor confused I get.

Been doing some more reading.
Some things say to not broadcase the SSID. Othery say you should.
I have only read part of this, need to read the rest but here it is:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx

This wrieless think is going to send me over the ende? LOL

fay

fay47 wrote:

THe more I read the mor confused I get.

Been doing some more reading.
Some things say to not broadcase the SSID. Othery say you should.
I have only read part of this, need to read the rest but here it is:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx

This wrieless think is going to send me over the ende? LOL

fay

Note that the article said "Although having users manually configure the SSID of a wireless network in order to connect to it creates the illusion of providing an additional layer of security, it does not substitute for either authentication or encryption." To rely on just hiding the SSID broadcast would be totally foolish. In my opinion, it will help a bit in conjunction with the other things mentioned, at least against those who aren't thoroughly familiar with networks. The problem cited in the article about non-broadcast networks compromising the privacy of the wireless network configuration seems to be a problem only with Windows XP, Service Pack 2 or Windows Server® 2003 with Service Pack 1, neither of which I have anymore, nor do you if I remember correctly. So, I am not going to worry about it and will continue to use the configuration as I have it with the SSID broadcast disabled.

Repa,

Lot of infomation. Don't know if I'll ever get it all straight in my head. Since my comuters does not have a wireless card I can't actaully look at stuff. Well, my company laptop does, but I odn't want to mess wiht it. They have things set up the way they want.

Maybe it will help some when my friend brings here netbook over and we can walk thru the stuff.

What can you tell me about the usb wireless connectors. I thought about getting one, just to be able to play with the wireless. But I don't kow if for me it is worth spending the money on just to play with.

In addition to your router you menioned an Access Point and a Hub.
Are they th same thing or differnt devices.

Why do you need those. I have 3 computers connected to my router and could have 4 . All 3 are wired ethernet. My router has wrieless capability but it is turned off.

Thanks
Fay

Thanks for the explanation. Complicated
I don't quite understand it all - but I think I do some of it.

So, the rouer/modem is not wireless and that is why you need the access point - is that true?

You need the hub because the router does not have enough ports - is that true?

The network storage device and connected pritner - kind of lost me a little bit.

OOhhh - don't know how you get this all figured out

There is or was a site you use to check to see which ports are open. I don't remember if I ever checked mine after I got the wireless router. I do not reember what the site is. Do you know?

Fay

I went out and ran the tests and it looks likes the router is doing its job. I first just ran the test like I have things. Then I used thier instructions and set WIndows Firewall to let their IP thru. All ports were still stealthed. Then I went into the router and made the change they said to make. Now things were different. Ports above 191 were still stealthed, but below 191 the oly ones stealthed were 19, and 135-139. Most of the rest wre closed but 3,53, and 80 were open. I wemt back and changed the setting back the way they were.

Since right now I am running with wireless disabled, I don't know what will happend if I enable that.

I still need to do some reading at the 2nd link. And I need to save both links so I can get back to them.

Thanks a lot.

Fay