My home network is locked down tighter than a gooses @#%^Follow

OK, so I'm in the IT field. And I'm lazy. Let's face it, I work on this sh[/i]it all day, I don't want to go home and work on it all night too.

Still, when I bought a townhouse and moved back in June I did a half-assed job of locking down my wireless network. Then, I got a laptop from work and when I tried adding it I had a few bugs and didn't feel like working through them. So I just opened the gates and connected figuring ***** it. If someone wants to dig through my sh[i]it their not going to find anything except some gaming files and lots of **** they could find in 5 minutes on the web anyways.

However, after a visit from my cousin (who's also in the field) and being rediculed for not locking my network down I decided to spend the time to get it down right. So the other night I began the process, which went pretty smoothly until I discovered that even though I could connect with my laptop and 2 desktop machines, I couldn't get an IP from the router for the 2 desktops. The laptop worked fine. This befuddled me, as I couldn't figure out why the laptop would work but not the two desktops. They worked before. So after some scratching of my head (and my ***) I said ***** it, and worry about it the next night.

At work the next day, I mentioned my problem to one of our Net Admin types, and he asked what kind of wireless cards I was using. I told him I was pretty sure they were Microsoft ones, and he said that they don't support WEP encryption. So if that's the encryption I was using then that was why they wouldn't talk.

That night, I switched from WEP encryption to WPA AES and it worked like a charm. Got all 3 talking, locked down by MAC address, then turned of the broadcasting so no one even knows I'm there. All ninja-like.

The point of this post? There isn't one really. I just somehow wanted to incorporate some kinda post with a goose's as[i][/i]shole. And I figured the Asylum would sleep much better tonight, knowing that Kakar's **** collection is secure.

I just pretty much skimmed the thread but I gathered the point is your computer is full of gay goose ****? That about sum it up?

As long as you guys get the important parts, that's all that matters.

Your mom's goose's as[b][/b]shole isn't tight at all.

BURN!

Edited, Thu Jan 26 16:20:07 2006 by NephthysWanderer

Actually, goose bums aside, I'm glad you posted this - when I switched over to wireless networking, I'm having some problems for one pc seeing the other 3, while 3 of them can see each other. All 4 computers are seeing the internet no problemo.

My old/work pc is the primary pc connecting to the modem. My new gaming rig, my wife's gaming rig and our laptop all have wireless cards in them. Before we went wireless, all 4 could see each other.

I don't know if it's an encryption issue or something wonky with Windows XP. I think we're using WPA ecryption but it could be WEP - I'll check when I get home in an hour.

you should be using WPA anyways. WEP is incredibly easy to break. MAC filtering, and turning off the SSID broadcasting is also a good idea. However, if someone had the right tools which you can easily download off the net, they could still sniff out your network, clone your MAC, and try and break the WPA. But to most people, Goose bum **** is just not worth all the work.

Edit: One handed typing got the best of me again!!

Edited, Thu Jan 26 16:53:13 2006 by Banter

that is why i use IPCop and keep my WiFi on BLUE so even if someone does happen to get past the encryption on the AP, they ONLY gain access to the web and not to the rest of my LAN.

very handy tool.

now if you are trying to create a wLAN, then that is just not safe no matter what you do. WAP is way better then WEP ever was so that is a good step. turing off broadcast does not remove you from being seen completely, but is best you really can do under most situations.

turning off DHCP will help some too as even if they see you, they will not pull an IP automatically and unless they want to sit around and try to find what IP works (FYI change the subnet so that you drastically limit the total IPs in the wLAN) then let them sit in their car.

if it is a neighbor, an easy fix is just to leave the default IP of the AP of 192.168.1.1 as that is a setting of a lot of SoHo type routers both wifi and wired.

all of those have simple work arounds, but the average EU will not have a clue how to get around them as all they will know is how to hit the repair button on their windows system. if they are running linux, well then they will know how to get around those precausions, but then they will also know ways around WAP encryption too for that matter. *grins*

only thing i trust wifi for is home wLANs without any connection to any kind of business computer or personal information that can be used against you like your bank account or CC#s, etc... and if you are running windows on that wLAN, then even more important to keep all personal and business information off of the wLAN as it can be cracked so much easier then a wired LAN.


anyways, always better safe then sorry. i had to turn off DHCP in my neighborhood for a short time and at several small officies i do some consulting for as the network was just being slammed. nothing was being hacked into (the data was secure as i can make it), but the bandwidth was being used and lots of it. have not seen strangeness on those networks since i dumped DHCP on them.

in all cases we are talking less then 20 computers at any given location so going static was not all that hard.

I broadcast and have no whitelist. I have friends who come by and it isn't worth the hasstle to get them on the network.

My router is running OpenWRT so if at any time I wanted to shut off the wireless, see how many leases are out, or generally do anything else... its just an ssh away.

I had to run OpenWRT because the firmware that was on the WRT54G was making my network suck when multiple connections were going on. I don't know why, and I don't know if anyone else ever had that problem, but I did.

I feel fairly secure behind my WPA key, not a dictionary word, over 12 in length.