RE: home wireless router good practices for security

["Nick Duda" <nduda () VistaPrint com>]

Disable DHCP on the WAP and go static RFC1918's
Harden your OS (numerous whitepapers on the net, google them)
Virus Software
IDS/Firewall software (BlackICE, ZoneAlarm..etc)
ACL's on shares/permissions

- Nick


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve [mailto:securityfocus () delahunty com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 1:33 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: home wireless router good practices for security

So I went out and purchased a wireless router (Linksys 802.11b) for home
since it was so inexpensive and actually less cost than the wireless
access points I was trying to get via eBay.  Got it home, installed my
wireless network card (SMC), powered on the router, attached it to a
port on my other wired linksys router, and boom it worked great.  Then
about 5 minutes after I sent an instant message to my neighbor (fellow
IT friend) he was on my network.  So I took the steps that Linksys
recommends below, seems good (to me).
    Change the default SSID
    Disable SSID Broadcasts
    Change the default password for the Administrator account
    Enable WEP 128-bit Encryption
Linksys also recommends these other measures, I have not implemented:
    Enable MAC Address Filtering
    Change the SSID periodically
    Change the WEP encryption keys periodically.

My Questions:

1) Anyone know how much enabling 128-bit encryption will hurt my
wireless performance?

2) Does setting the SSID for my wireless NIC then keep me from getting
onto other wireless networks like when traveling?  I ask since that
setting was set to ANY before I changed it to the SSID that I set for my
wireless router.

3) What else should I really do to protect my home network?



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