Wireless security

lolly5648

We've got a Netgear router and a wireless card for laptop. I understood that this comes with a firewall. We use XP.

A friend came round who had a wifi laptop and he picked up our broadband signal. Should this happen? Does it mean that someone walking down the street could in theory use our signal? Can they access our files?

I know nothing about computers so would be grateful for any advice

sra

aol's guide to a netgear router is here

If you scroll down to the bottom it tells you about security (step 10)

lolly5648

Thats brilliant - thank you

woo

i have restricted the access of my Netgear router via my wireless cards MAC address as WEP seemed to slow things down for me.

Which router do you have?

lolly5648

We have the Netgear DG834G router wi a WG511T wireless card.

I dont know what WEP or Mac address means.

milgo

I hope this helps.

MAC address (Media Access Control)
A Media Access Control address is a unique 48-bit identifier usually written as 12 hexadecimal characters grouped in pairs (e. g., 00-00-0c-34-11-4e). You’ll probably find this written on the bottom of your
wireless card for laptop. This address is usually hard-coded into a Network Interface Card (NIC) Router, or in your case wireless card for laptop by its manufacturer, and does not change. It is the physical address of a data device, and is used as an aid for routers trying to locate machines on large networks.

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
The security aspects of 802.11b, a standard that enables wireless devices such as PDAs and laptop computers to access a network via radio frequencies instead of physical wiring. WEP has three tasks: 1) to authenticate clients to access points; 2) to encrypt the data exchanged between the clients and access points; and 3) to include an integrity check with every packet exchanged. The initial implementation of WEP provides weak security. While it is not completely useless, it is best used as another layer of security in conjunction with stronger measures.

vinnieboy

You should be moving over to WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key). it's far more safer than WEP.