Security Basics mailing list archives
RE: wirless connection security issues
From: "Dunigan, Michael" <mdunigan () umich edu>
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:56:00 -0400
I can give you a couple of things to think about for part of your setup, but not all of it. My comments are going to assume that you have decided on some solution to aggregate your incoming bandwidth. It appears that you have two incoming streams. As far as I know, the wrt54gl only has a single port for the incoming network. So I will start there. I would set up the router to use the Class C private IP range for your machines (192.168.x.x). This does mean that you can not address them from the Public Internet, but it does not appear that you are interested in that type of functionality. (The Linksys can use ports to route to specific machines, but if you have a dynamic address on the router, that does not matter any way.) Next I would set up WPA2 security on the wireless link with a pre-shared phrase. (Make sure your machines can do WPA2 and not just WPA) I would allow the router to continue to broadcast the SSID (network name) as that makes setting up the machines much easier. Then I would monitor the DHCP table as you have been doing. If you are still having problems, the next thing I would do is to turn off broadcasting the SSID (by now, all of your machines have been setup, and it is of less use to you). The next step will probably help a lot more with securing your network, but it adds a lot of manual work for you. The next step I would look at is to turn on MAC address filtering. By that I mean, go into the router and specify the MAC address of every machine that you want to allow access to the wireless network. This adds lots of record keeping and makes it hard for your friends to come by with a machine and get online on your network. (Remember that this is not bulletproof as it is possible in many ways to change the MAC address that a network device is using. For instance, that very router can change its MAC address to the address of a machine, if your provider requires that you use the address from your PC...) Have fun... Michael J. Dunigan Office of the Registrar, University of Michigan (734) 647-3633 MDunigan at umich dot edu ************************************* Electronic Mail is not secure, may not be read every day, and should not be used for urgent or sensitive issues.
-----Original Message----- From: Cherian Thomas [mailto:cherian.in () gmail com] Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 4:06 PM To: security-basics () securityfocus com Subject: wirless connection security issues Hi all, Recently I bought a linksys wrt54gl router for my home networking use. I live in an environment where we have frequent wi-fi brute attacks with air crack and so on. This was very evident the first time I did a check on my router dhcp client table and found two unauthorized systems accessing my internet connection (I didn't implement any authentication method then). I am pretty much a newbie into this wireless arena and therefore ignorant of the best security practices. Can you suggest me methods to setup a "secure" wireless environment? Consider me paranoid :-) I will post my proposed network topology which can give you an insight of my situation. : I have two connections coming to an xp system. One a 128kbps and the other a 256 kbps one. I did a connection sharing of the 256 kbps one and a 3rd internal network card takes it to the router. The router then shares the net wirelessly to 4 laptops. The problem with the topology is that my first system (connection sharing system) is no longer in the LAN (any work around's for this prob). Also can I get access to any software which can help me with connection teaming the 128kbps and 256kbps one (I know of a software midpoint. But that company that makes it has bought it down) to effectively make it 384kbps (I need it to be in the windows platform) - With regards Cherian
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Current thread:
- wirless connection security issues Cherian Thomas (Jul 31)
- RE: wirless connection security issues Dunigan, Michael (Jul 31)
- Re: wirless connection security issues Jarrod Frates (Jul 31)