Making a WEP connection as secure as possible

s-j-cooper_2

I know that WEP is a pretty poor encryption, but having recently purchased a DS I need to set up my router for it.

I have changed it all to WEP and everything is connecting fine, but what can I do to make it as secure as possible?

I have a DG834g netgear router.

Thanks.

Donnie

Random characters: Randomly generated passwords

sjc_2

Get the MAC Address of all your connecting devices, then set your router security to only let those MAC Addresses connect, you could also disable SSID Broadcasting once you have everything configured, so anyone searching for Wireless LAN's won't see you.

superscaper

sjc wrote: »

Get the MAC Address of all your connecting devices, then set your router security to only let those MAC Addresses connect, you could also disable SSID Broadcasting once you have everything configured, so anyone searching for Wireless LAN's won't see you.

http://www.icsalabs.com/icsa/docs/html/communities/WLAN/wp_ssid_hiding.pdf

Blacksheep1979

random chars/numbers/symbols etc will improve the security negligably. If anyone is skillful enough to get past the wep security then mac filtering is going to prove little trouble. Personally it would take under 10 mins to get into your network with/without the suggestions above.

There is nothing that you can really do to secure wep - best bet would be to reduce the output power (reduce range of the router) if possible or if not flash the firmware to one that does allow that.

Maybe the question you should be asking is how often you will be using the wireless on the ds and is it a bit of a gimmick? If not frequently then I'd be turning wpa back on.

s-j-cooper_2

Thanks for your replies everyone - some good advice that I really appreciate. I'll monitor how much I use the DS over the next couple of weeks and see if it's worth me keeping it as WEP.

JustPassingBy

s-j-cooper wrote: »

I know that WEP is a pretty poor encryption, but having recently purchased a DS I need to set up my router for it.

I have changed it all to WEP and everything is connecting fine, but what can I do to make it as secure as possible?

I have a DG834g netgear router.

Thanks.

WEP+(MAC filtering)+(SSID hiding) is about as secure as it gets. And that's hardly more secure than WEP by itself.

Integrating another router using WEP into the network means you can keep the WPA segment. It's an extra expense of course.

Brian.

DatabaseError

there is a dongle you can get for your pc which allows the ds to connect to the net though it, rather than the router, so you can keep wpa encryption, about £25, but you keep your security, losing which could cost far more.

Blacksheep1979

Sorry but to the last two solutions - if you're allowing access to your network via wep in any form there is little point having a wpa segment (if they are connected together). This would just be a waste of money.

DatabaseError

did i suggest using wep? "so you can keep wpa encryption". the only way to make wep secure is encase the router in a lead box, so that none of the signal can get out.
apology accpeted.

Blacksheep1979

erm you're saying there is a wireless dongle that you can attatch to the pc so your ds can access the internet. Well that will be some form of wireless I'd guess 802.11 something, now if it's not encrypted anything can access it, if it is it's using something that the ds can access like wep and again it's not secure. Any time you feel like apologising....