Access control or Encryption?

Lady_K

I thought it was quite easy to get the mac address from each machine though isnt it?

espresso

Lady_K wrote:

I thought it was quite easy to get the mac address from each machine though isnt it?

Yes it is but it is also unnecessary when you can simply enter the WPA-PSK pass-phrase into the router once and then simply enter the same pass-phrase into each of the PC needing to connect. Then you would have a secure system whereas MAC address filtering would not be!

It looks much more difficult that it is to do in reality. It is very easy if the pass-phrase is store in a notepad file, stored on a USB flashdrive etc.

If you want to make it secure, do it properly and then it is done.

Lady_K

OK So she can get the pass phase from https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm then? Is that the same thing as a long hex WPA-PSK password?

How can she find the pw of the router?

I may ask her to set up an id herself on here but can she come on here while shes making the changes? be on the internet I mean?

espresso

Lady_K wrote:

OK So she can get the pass phase from https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm then? Is that the same thing as a long hex WPA-PSK password?

How can she find the pw of the router?

I may ask her to set up an id herself on here but can she come on here while shes making the changes? be on the internet I mean?

Yes just save a long 64 char hex password and use that as your pass-phrase for WPA-PSK.

If the password on the router has not been changed, it will still be as per the instructions in the user guide but it obviously should be changed.

You should be able connect to the net using a wired connection when setting up the wireless encryption.

albertross_2

I'd use the 63 character printable one, e.g.

n>lCp3b9X(TKY?AN&yZ:2)GW6CB'V.<,jESXkk%*vEyd}:<=7C<e[{ZaziVW*8!!

Linksys 192.168.1.1 nousernameleaveblank admin

espresso

albertross wrote:

I'd use the 63 character printable one, e.g.

n>lCp3b9X(TKY?AN&yZ:2)GW6CB'V.<,jESXkk%*vEyd}:<=7C<e[{ZaziVW*8!!

Why?

If ASCII characters are used for the pass-phrase, they then get converted by the router onto a 256 bit HEX string.

The facility to enter ASCII characters is to enable users to make use of a simple easy to remember phrase like "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" but that would not be very secure!

Manufactures can handle this conversion in different ways and some ASCII characters in the pass-phrase string can cause problems with certain makes of equipment. If a HEX string is used initially, these problems don't arise.

It is much easier and safer to use a 64 char random HEX string obtainable from here.

albertross_2

Entering hex for WPA isn't an option on my router, (it is used for WEP), if you entered a hex string when a plain 8-63 ascii password was expected, it would work, but the hex would be treated as ascii, and would therefore become a weaker password, because it is only made up of 16 (0-9,A-F) characters instead of the full printable ascii range. (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, =+_^!"£$%&*()}!![]@;:<>.,?/||\ etc..)

using the full character set, instead of just 0123456789abcdef adds about another 55 0's onto the end of the possible combinations, so makes it much harder (impossible) to crack.