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[Ned Flanders]

a) I live in an apartment complex

b) I'm a total rookie when it comes to networks, wireless in particular

c) I have no idea whether or not a built-in firewall is worth a damn on these routers


I've been pontificating moving on the Linksys WRT54GS. It says it has 128-bit encryption and an SPI firewall, which sounds nice, but I really have no idea as to whether or not that actually means anything as far as security goes. Am I setting myself up for a fall here?

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Yes. Yes you should.

 

[Diablos]

Yep.

 

[chinch]

^^ yes

 

[cubicle47b]

It's not that hard to set up a router so it'll protect you from most threats. The WRT54GS supports WPA2 (encryption type), you can set the router up to block MAC addresses that aren't your own (unique ID of a wireless device), and you can turn off the feature that broadcasts your SSID (name of your wireless network).

Of course, that's still not going to completely protect you as they can sniff packets to figure out your SSID and encryption scheme and fake your MAC address but nothing's perfect.

edit: Here's a good quote for the second paragraph ("driver" = wardriver).

I have my wireless locked down enough to where it's hard to get in, hard enough to where a "driver" will most likely just connect to one of the 4 others within range of me that are wide open.

edit2: IP filtering is a good idea, too. As is changing your login password (very important).

 

[Ned Flanders]

Would periodically changing your SSID help, or is that even an option?

 

[Deku Tree]

I turn my computer off when I'm not using it. If it's off, they can't get in.

 

[chinch]

you can easily clamp down intruders 99.99999% w/ ip/mac filters, hidden SSID, changed keys periodically but you should be FEARFUL if you ignorantly hookup wirelessly without proper setup.

 

[Phoenix]

If you have a competent router there should be a setting on there to have it configure itself to allow on certain MAC addresses to connect. When you connect to the router, you can go to that configuration screen and your MAC address should show up, you can mark it as authorized (as well as any other wireless devices that you are connecting), turn on mac address filtering, and then you can sleep good at night.

 

[Deku Tree]

If you have a competent router there should be a setting on there to have it configure itself to allow on certain MAC addresses to connect. When you connect to the router, you can go to that configuration screen and your MAC address should show up, you can mark it as authorized (as well as any other wireless devices that you are connecting), turn on mac address filtering, and then you can sleep good at night.

Does Airport do that?

 

[Phoenix]

Does Airport do that?

I dunno. I have a Netgear router. I have an AirportExpress that is connected to the Netgear from time to time and will take a look and see if it does.

 

[-james-]

For my wireless network i enabled WEP 128bit (i know i should use WPA but my daughters wireless adapter on her iMac doesnt support it) and set up MAC address filtering. I also turn off my computer when im not using it. I figure ive done more than my neighbors as when i plugged in the wireless adapter into the iMac, i could connect to 5 different wireless networks that were not encrypted at all, i figure anyone wanting to leach a connection will use one of those....no problems yet!