Viewing Thread:
"How safe are our home wireless networks ?."

A couple of days ago a friend of mine told me of Wi-Fi hacking software which apparently is being distributed (I presume through warez sites ?).He reckoned this software can 'hack' its way into your home wireless networks by working out your WEP key.I have just done a quick google (didn't think it would be a great idea to post links) and I easily found the software he is referring to.Do any of you guys know if this actually works ?,aware its obviously not legal.If so are there any steps we can take to secure our networks from this kind of activity ?.Apart from stealing our bandwidth and slowing down our connections what if any kind of illegal online activity was to done using your connection ?.Reckon you would have a hell of a job trying to prove your innocence.Is this old news,as I'm not really up to speed on these kind of things or is it something we should all be concerned about ?.

With the ever closer fibre cabling I would say it's a risk, but you shouldn't see too much pressure in an average household with an average ADSL (1 I believe is still "average").

Either way, I have no use for Wireless N, I'm not disputing it isn't needed.

Warhunt wrote:
> Ideally though Wireless G should still be fairly reliable up
> until we see speeds of over 54Mbps. Which hopefully will be in my
> time eh? :D

I think we're pretty close to what Wireless G can comfortably handle for a >1 person household.

@WH and pete:

Thanks guys, it has only really just sunk in:-) Me and Mrs DL (Grandma ha ha) are well chuffed - hopefully, and these things can never be counted on, we should be back from this years visit to Boston before the 'patter of tiny feet' :-))

Wasn't disputing the wireless/wired issue. That's been done to death.

An example of "normal N use"-

I often used to get 60-75% signal on my old wireless conn. That was 2 metres below (maybe, less if anything) through the floor. Throughput tests at this time put me around 4.8-5.2Mbps, using wireless.

On wireless N (testing) the signal was stronger, rarely falling to the point of G, and throughout tests again showed around 5Mbps.

The point being, for the fairly large sum of money, I got no improvement.

Now if I was moving around a lot, outside etc etc, I would expect completely different results as Hmmm.... mentions.

Ideally though Wireless G should still be fairly reliable up until we see speeds of over 54Mbps. Which hopefully will be in my time eh? :D

Even in a 'normal' home it's worth looking at the different ADSL throughput you get on Wireless 'G' rather than via a network cable!

Your wireless can sometimes be quite a pinch point even though the supported speed standard is far higher than your ADSL connection.

You also might want to pick up your wireless connection further in to your garden or remote home office.

Of course, these days more and more people are streaming or moving data around their home networks where 'N' should do better.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Yeah but in a standard/ normal home you won't really have need of one on average. If I had a need of larger reach or stronger, than I would grab it, but I can't justify it....

The overhead on G is more than enough for standard ADSL anyway, so they can't even claim that to be the selling point at the moment.

If you are using WEP then that's more of a reason to use 'Access Control' (MAC list) - only take a minute to setup...

Everything has it's weaknesses. MACs can be spoofed but that's pretty unlikely.

And as for wireless signal 'reach' - if you have a type 'N' router with type 'N' devices then in my experience if does a lot better.







[s]Hmmm...[/s] My Freeola Instant Site

My issue is that certain things that use wireless in my house NEED WEP and won't work with WPA. Mostly I can get around this by using Ethernet on most of my connections via a Homeplug (which itself is password protected)

However, since my wireless signal barely reaches outside the house and I doubt next door would be able to do anything like that I'm not too bothered. I do monitor the connections from time to time anyway, just in case.

Yeah,I listened to some idiot in PC World who recommended it,should have known better really.I'm not really up to speed on this kind of thing but since I bought it a few people told me D-Link are not the best routers.Like I said wouldn't recommend them,certainly wouldn't buy another.Paid over the odds for it as well ! :(

That's not really a function of Wireless N. It just happened to be a function included on the Wireless N model we had in :D

The signal is never going to improve things that don't really need improving in a sense. They are decent, if you can make real use of them. But general use, I wouldn't need one....

I wouldn't get a D-Link myself anywho...personal preference