MoneySaving and Security Tip - Turn your wireless router power output down

samhale

John_Gray wrote: »

I don't think there is any objection to "people offering well-meaning advice", but making a post with such a pretentious title which is inaccurate in many details which the OP did not bother to check surely requires correction, if only for those who are not familiar with the topic and could be misled.

To give an extreme example, if you were 'advised' that it was a pretty neat idea to walk up the third lane of the M1, you would know immediately that this advice was wrong. But a young child, or someone from a land where there were no cars, might well accept this as fact.

There is the concept of the "duty of care", and making out that something is fact when it has not been checked or verified falls short of this ideal.

[end of pretentious post! ]

A bit OTT, but completely true

superstylin

John_Gray wrote: »

I don't think there is any objection to "people offering well-meaning advice", but making a post with such a pretentious title which is inaccurate in many details which the OP did not bother to check surely requires correction, if only for those who are not familiar with the topic and could be misled.

To give an extreme example, if you were 'advised' that it was a pretty neat idea to walk up the third lane of the M1, you would know immediately that this advice was wrong. But a young child, or someone from a land where there were no cars, might well accept this as fact.

There is the concept of the "duty of care", and making out that something is fact when it has not been checked or verified falls short of this ideal.

[end of pretentious post! ]

Totally agree John. Making corrections or debating truths is, in part, what this forum is about - which is what most people did, but to write "most pointless thread ever?" adds nothing helpful and merely inhibits any well meaning person from posting again. Seems to me that the post asking about pointless threads should be voted 'most pointless of all'

HaushinkaGreenDay

Hi there everyone,

Thanks for you opinions about my post, but please don't fire me down for trying to add one more, albeit small, piece of armour to home wireless networks!

I apologise for not referencing well earlier, I wrote the original post just before I started packing for a short break over the New Year and I didn't have time to find the links to the published article about WPA having been cracked.

Yes, I know Watchdog isn't a reliable source of tech info, but I thought more people on the MSE boards would have seen that programme than the research paper from Germany (which is here, by the way).

My link to the 2001 BBC article was to highlight to people who didn't already know, that wireless network 'hijacking' has been happening now for a few years, and isn't just recent. I didn't make it clear enough in my note that it was referring to the earlier, and inferior WEP encryption - sorry .

Now as to whether WPA2 has been officially 'cracked'; I had heard from a friend who works at Aberdeen University in the E-Learning department that it had been done - my fault for warning people about it without external evidence, I guess - perhaps that was a case of chinese whispers with my friend's colleagues.

However, WPA2 is not fundamentally much different from WPA (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=826) so I believe it's only a matter of time before that, too, is no longer 100% secure.

And yes, the research done by Beck and Tews (2008) on WPA security did only test TKIP and not the more secure AES protocol, and the authors concluded that only inward data (ie that being downloaded from the internet to the user's machine) could be intercepted; but how long will it be before WPA has been fully cracked, and WPA2 shows a chink in its armour?

Especially as it has been reported in PC World magazine that some of the code used in the research has been added to the Wi-Fi encryption hacking tool, 'Aircrack-ng' (http://www.pcworld.com/article/153396/.html).

Also, I have seen many (older) routers out there that don't have WPA2, and even some that still only have WEP.

I still believe that it's unnecessary to broadcast a wireless network halfway down the street, especially in smaller homes and flats. Even if it was still possible to detect a signal outside the property, if that signal is weak and drops out frequently, surely anyone trying to connect without permission would just choose another with a stronger, more reliable signal (if there was one!)?

Also, I appreciate that some people need guidelines to ensure their other security measures are adequate - but there are plenty of websites already out there that are very concise and clear.

One thing I picked up on was that although some sites mention siting of wireless routers away from external walls and windows to prevent outside access, for example stating that 'the further [the wireless] signal reaches, the easier it is for others to detect and exploit' (http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm), in most UK homes the master socket for the phone line is often next to a window, therefore most routers are likely to be sited nearby (as ISPs recommend connecting the router to the master socket for maximum performance).

I still stand by my suggestion that, if possible and practicable, reducing a router's wireless range when in a home-use environment is a sensible method of reducing the possibility of unauthorised usage. Of course, other security measures such as hiding the broadcast name of the network (Hidden SSID); choosing a random, long chain of both letters and numbers for the router username/password, SSID (network name) and the pre-shared key; and ensuring WPA2-AES is selected as the encryption protocol if it's available, are priorities.

Regards, and Happy New Year!

Haushinka

:starmod: :staradmin :starmod: :staradmin :starmod:

HaushinkaGreenDay

superstylin wrote: »

Totally agree John. Making corrections or debating truths is, in part, what this forum is about - which is what most people did, but to write "most pointless thread ever?" adds nothing helpful and merely inhibits any well meaning person from posting again. Seems to me that the post asking about pointless threads should be voted 'most pointless of all'

Thank you for this, superstylin. I was rather upset by the way some people responded to my post, and did contemplate withdrawing from the MSE forums for while!

It was good to see someone who accepts that posting on this site is usually a matter of personal opinion and by no means perfect, and I was only trying to help people out!

Happy New Year!

Haushinka

:starmod: :staradmin :starmod: :staradmin :starmod: