Securing Home Wireless Networks

If you want to build a wireless network, you'll need

• Wireless router
• Wireless adapter – in each computer

Wireless Router

Most home wireless networks use either:

• 802.11g wireless networking, which transmits data at 2.4 GHz with a speed of 54 megabits.
• 802.11n newer, faster and longer range than 802.11g.

Signals from a 802.11g wireless router extend about 100 feet (30.5 meters) in all directions, but walls can interrupt the signal. You can extend coverage by using a range extender or repeater .

Wireless Adapter

The wireless adapter in each computer is used to connect the computer, printer or device to the network. Most new models have built-in wireless communication capability, otherwise you can use a wireless Ethernet bridge to add wireless networking capability.

Wireless Network Security

• All home wireless networks must be secured, unless you want your neighbours being able to hijack your Internet connection. Wireless security options include:
• Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP)
• WiFi Protected Access (WPA) – stronger than WEP but not as readily available. Uses TKIP
• Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering

All of the above security options have been approved by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), but studies have proven that WEP can be broken into very easily.

I use a combination of WEP and MAC address filtering. My DLINK Modem/WAP only offers WEP so I add the additional security by allowing only IP addresses of the devices on my home computer to access the network.

If you use WEP, you may also consider adding Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) to your operating system.

TKIP is a wrapper with backward compatibility, meaning you can add it to your existing security option without interfering with its activity.

WEP

Wired Equivalent Privacy [WEP] securesWireless Networks by encrypting all packets of information sent wirelessly using a set ‘Key’. The length of this ‘Key’ varies depending on whether 64-bit or 128-bit WEP Encryption is used and whether the Key is in ASCII or Hexadecimal format.

• 64-bit Hexadecimal - 10 Characters long (using letters A-F and Numbers 0-9)
• 64-bit ASCII - 5 Characters long
• 128-bit Hexadecimal - 26 Characters long (using letters A-F and Numbers 0-9)
• 128-bit ASCII -13 Characters long

Some Client Adapters also refer to WEP-Encryption as either ‘Open’ or ‘Shared’.

Shared WEP - both Router or Access Point and Client Adapter have the same WEP Key that is manually entered

WEP Encryption is the most widely implemented method but is also the least secure of all Encryption types . This is because the WEP Key is static, and the Wireless Packets can be ‘captured’ by a determined Hacker using widely available key cracking software to reveal the key and expose the unencrypted data.

Most Modem/Routers and Access Points use the Hexadecimal Encryption Key type by manually entering letters A-F and numbers 0-9. Some have the option to randomly generate a key for you.

To add other devices to your network, you will need to enter the Key into the NW Setup.

WPA

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) wascreated by the WiFi Alliance for 802.11 Wireless Networks to replace the weaker WEP.

Rather than using static Keys it using Dynamic Encryption Keys to secure Network Access. The latest version of this standard is now a WPA2

WPA uses two Encryption methods:

• TKIP - WPA
• AES – WPA2

TKIP

TKIP or Temporal Key Integrity Protocol enhances WEP security by:

1. Adding a 128-bit per-packet key mixing function to strengthen the previously weak WEP Keys, and
2. A re-keying mechanism to provide fresh encryption and integrity keys. TKIP is ‘wrapped’ around the existing WEP encryption. TKIP uses the same encryption engine and RC4 algorithm defined for WEP- with the key in TKIP 128 bits long. This resolves the problem that the WEP key is too-short in length.

Each packet transmitted using TKIP has a unique 48-bit serial number, incremented every time a new packet is transmitted.

Together, this makes TKIP Keys more resistant to hacker attempts.

NOTE: The RSN [Robust Secure Network] component of the 802.11i standard recommends replacing TKIP with CCMP. However, the standard does allow TKIP for backwards compatibility. Backwards compatibility with TKIP is necessary because most legacy Wi-Fi (802.11) hardware does not have the CPU power to use the AES algorithm utilized by CCMP. The RC4 algorithm utilized by TKIP will run on legacy Wi-Fi hardware.

AES

AES or Advanced Encryption Standard is only supported by newer Wireless devices . It uses a 256-bit Dynamic Key which is much faster than WEP or TKIP.

WPA

WPA is designed for use with an IEEE 802.1X Authentication Server, or ‘Radius Server’,
which distributes different keys to each user. It can also be used in ‘Pre-Shared Key’ or ‘PSK’ mode, where each wireless devices is given the identical 8 to 63 character ‘Passphrase’ [can include spaces].

NOTE: Although WPA-TKIP is better than WEP it is NOT considered secure. Only WPA2 with AES is regarded as a secure.

WPA-PSK is easy for home network users to set up. The Passphrase for authentication stays the same for the Customer, but the WPA Encryption Key is changed randomly behind the scenes.

Go-Reviews.com recommends WPA/WPA2-PSK as a preferred Encryption Method.

Next: How To Network Multiple Computers Using A Wireless Home Network

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