Help me please. I need a router.

[kevin]

WEP is still about as bad as any other encryption, it's breakable given time but I dont know about real time. I've tried it and apart from needing a Unix box to run the necessary software correctly it can take anything from several days to weeks to crack stuff with readily available software since it requires a huge number of packets to crack the key. Hardly worth the effort for someones home network. [/B]

WEP is worse than most other encryptions. Here's an article from Security Focus discussing breaking WEP in minutes or seconds:

http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1814

Here's the tools to do it:

http://wepcrack.sourceforge.net/

It isn't just the encryption that is bad in WEP, there are other factors too such as the fact that the keys are never changed. This means traffic can be recorded and broken later. WPA at least changes it's keys on a frequent basis to minimize this.

 

[kevin]

I've read of pedophiles that break into home networks to gain access to Internet pedophile sites anonymously. The poor homeowners are unaware of the breach until the police show up with a warrant for their computers and a bunch of embarrassing questions.

eh, i think this is less likely than the homeowner's computer being used as part of zombie network to distribute child porn (which happens way more frequently than the other scenario). Most people borrowing wireless connections are doing it a) they didn't even realize it was a private connection (it's pretty easy to accidently connect to the wrong wireless connection), b) they want to check their mail.

I have 2 wireless connections, one for myself using 802.11G and WPA2 encryption. the other is my old 802.11b hub that i leave open for anyone to use. that one is walled off from my other computers as well.

 

[kevin]

How would one detect this sort of piggy-backing on a home wifi LAN? My setup uses a Linksys router modem. Win XP pro and home. Can't recall the model number and I'm not at home now, but a mid 2004 model. 811G

There should be a list of connected computers available on one of the configuration pages, it'll show how many computers are connected and their mac address and IP address.

There should also be a logging page that lets your review connections made over time. This may need to be enabled before it will start logging.

You could also install something like ethereal or netstumbler to keep an eye on network traffic. ethereal can be pretty hard to understand.

http://www.netstumbler.com/

 

[kevin]

I VPN into work regularly, and have never had any connection problems. I use a Linksys BEFSR41 at firmware level 1.05.00. I guess this is a case of YMMV.

βPer

You're talking about VPN pass-thru, i never had problems with that on linksys or d-link. I was talking about VPN Endpoint. I used a linksys router as a VPN endpoint so I could VPN into my home network. Everytime the linksys received a VPN packet it would reboot itself. I switched to a D-Link VPN endpoint router and the problems went away.

VPN endpoint routers cost about $20 more than their non-VPN couterpart. Useful if you have a laptop and want to connect to computers behind the router.

 

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

I dont know of any home routers I'd trust to set up well as a VPN end point, some of the 2-Wire ones I've got with BT Business broadband lines here in the UK have the necessary config pages, but for all the serious stuff we stick on smaller Cisco routers like 1700 series and above. Some of the later Cisco 800 series can manage but are best avoided. Cisco 700 series should be smashed to little pieces wherever you find them.

As for monitoring to see if you've been piggybacked then as has been mentioned you can go either for professional style monitoring stuff like Ethereal which will allow you to also capture and analyse packets, or you can just check and see on your routers DHCP or MAC filtering pages and see if a new MAC address or DHCP address has appeared. DHCP is the protocol that assigns an IP address to each device that joins a network, so if you only have 2 PCs and your router has assigned 3 addresses.......

As for WEP cracking, yes it can be done. Is it worth it? Not usually, people wanting to store stuff usually spend their time hunting for unsecured webserver space or server farms, not home PCs. Your home kit is more likely to be used as part of a zombie network under the control of a hacker, and that's more a function of trojan virus infection than anything else. What they can do however is get free internet access to use to send a mass of spam email or whatever else they dont want to send from their own, traceable account. When the ISP finally finds where all the traffic is and shuts you down, the hacker moves on to the next unsecured wireless access. I actually had a guy parking in our works carpark in a huge, brand-new Volvo and use our wireless network for a day or two. When I finally spotted this and cut him off he drove off at high speed before security could get to him. Be warned, it does happen.

The home user using a router is far better protected than one without, since most routers by default these days block any unusual ports the minute you turn them on. The fact you are also being NATed, the process of the router changing your address from an internal address to an external address for talking to the net, also makes you far less susceptible to the standard hacker exploits.

 

[kevin]

I dont know of any home routers I'd trust to set up well as a VPN end point, some of the 2-Wire ones I've got with BT Business broadband lines here in the UK have the necessary config pages, but for all the serious stuff we stick on smaller Cisco routers like 1700 series and above. Some of the later Cisco 800 series can manage but are best avoided. Cisco 700 series should be smashed to little pieces wherever you find them.

Too expensive for home use. I'd use one of the low-end ones for a home or small office (less than 10 people needing VPN.) Mines been very reliable. This is what I've been using for a year or so now:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=59

 

[Checkmite]

Thank you for your advice, everyone. I've asked Apple and they assure me that as long as the "Windows only" routers are set up by a Windows machine first (just in case), it should be able to be used by a Mac, Linux, or any other machine that recognizes TCP/IP.

 

[SezMe]

These days wireless isn't the pain to set up that it used to be. Most of our female office staff successfully set up theirs at home for their new VPN connections and they're in no way IT professionals.

What is the importance of "female" in that sentence?

 

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

Because all of our female staff are admin and all our mail staff are IT techies who do this kind of nonsense all day. I'm not sexist in any way I am aware of, it's just the way it is here in this office. If it makes things better you should know that all the bosses are female too, which frankly is the way it should be.

 

[Soapy Sam]

You have something against the guys in the mail room?

 

[Xeriar]

Nearly every Linksys box I've purchased fries eventually. It's also not meant to run servers over.

Getting my Netgear router to host anything was a nightmare. Never touching one of those again.

Been very happy with my D.Link.

 

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

My own Linksys box got a bit flakey, so much so that I replaced it with something else in the end and passed it on to a less demanding friend for free. It was supremely easy to configure and set up, particularly the firewall settings and port forwarding, but I found it seemed to be locking up somewhere and stopping traffic occasionally, demanding a reboot. I've seen similar behaviour in Cisco 3524XL boxes, maybe it's a symptom of something Cisci based.

The current British Telecom router of choice is the 2-Wire brand that they give out with their Business Broadband packages. As befits a business style device it's a complete bitch to set up properly and not what you would call user friendly. Works well once set up though.

We use and recommend D-Link wireless routers for remote staff RASing in to the network, they are a nice compromise of reliability and ease of use. The ones I've been involved with didn't last all that long in constant use, but if it's not an industrial application then they should be fine.

Netgear stuff is only now permeating our workplace, but it certainly seems to be well built and up to the job, I fancy getting one of their wireless routers for my own network to try one out. I've installed professional size Netgear switches and equipment and it was all very nice, not as flexible as Cisco kit but nowhere near as expensive either.