pottsynz

Do a survey, see how far outside the house you get it.

cokelvr

I would but I don't have anything but desktops. 3 to be exact and nary a laptop to be found. That is next, my original laptop bit the dust.

Mephisto2

Why would you want coverage outside your house?

Ask yourself that question first.


Mr Mephisto

eyeronic

Thank you so much Mr M., this answered so many of my questions. The one thing I had to get somewhere else was the 192.168.1.1 address which I had no clue about since I circumvented the instructions and installation of Verizon crap and I am not too savvy. I was wondering where to go to configure all the things you were talking about and when i finally found 192.168.1.1 I wa slike, "Ooooooh!" Anyway, thanks a million.

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I hold with those that favor fire.

Limey2

Hi, I'm a new user - I found this thread on google and decided I would join as I like the gist of the forum as a whole.

I think I have something to contribute to this old thread so I figure I;d resurrect it.

I do wireless Network Penetration testing for a major tech company and there are a few caveats missing from the numbered security lock down parts of this discussion.

#1 Client Hijack.
No matter how good the encryption, be it WPA/RADIUS 802.1x, PEAP, LEAP, Kerberos5 or even WPA-PSK or lowly WEP they all share a fundamental flaw - client hijack.
Inevitably, laptop users will be local admins at any company or agency you choose. They will also inevitably play with their client so that they can use their home wireless, possibly to VPN in. These probes can be sniffed and it is easy to provide the named access point they are searching for. On corporate networks, they can even be "poached" with a same name louder signal (ap with directional antennae pointed at the window)
At this point it all comes down to how well the client is patched, for which the answer is usually, not completely up to date - especially if the laptop is not a member of the xyz domain - then it can be accessed and the WPA Pairwise Master Key or WEP key can be extrapolated from the windows registry.

Sometimes, and with some drivers, like linksys WPC11, the card will default to Ad-hoc mode and windows will helpfully assign a default 169.254.x.x IP address, using kismet, ethereal or airodump, this IP can be sniffed in monitor mode and the connection can then be established by granting yourself an IP in the same subnet.

#2 WEP, WPA, WPA-PSK
not all WPA is equal, the WPA standard has been muddied with newer Access Points and people have the habit of stating that WPA is secure. It's not that simple.
Many new APs will default to WPA-PSK with WEP, this is no better than plain WEP - it can still be broken! WPA is only secure when using TKIP or AES - the broken WEP key can be used to decipher traffic, though not for association, even if rekeying (MIC) takes place on some APs, it is too late, internal traffic capture has been made and the key breaks in 300-1M packets.

Even with WPA-PSK with TKIP, users are still using their pass-phrase like a key and using a single word or very simple phrase, such as a bible passage (after calling the AP something like johnx:x)
forged de-authentication of a client will result in the replay of the four way EAPOL handshake which can be cracked offline with around 5-10K guesses per second, obviously dictionary words will fall.

Also, use of the AP built in Passphrase generator for WEP was mentioned, the Linux utility "wepattack" has broken this algorithm for most APs and the seed "pass-phrase" is the same as the WEP key itself when performing a dictionary attack - in laymans terms, it is possible to break 64-256bit WEP with a single data packet in less than a second if someone were silly enough to choose a pass-phrase like, "cat" by piping john the ripper into wepattack or using a dictionary of people's names. (two of my neighbors have such simple keygen constructed WEP keys - broken with their permission)

Hope this helps some of you more informed people to further strengthen your home networks - your companies are only as secure as your homes, and you could have me as a neighbor.

biznatch

I don't mean to threadjack, but I have the same issue.
I have a wireless network on WRT54G Linksys router. Ironically, its at the furthermost location from my room. And I like to play video games. I just set up a computer in my room, which is a floor up and about 18 meters away (on a horizontal plane).
I dont have anything on the upstairs computer that'd allow me to access the network.
What do you think would be the best for me to do to get a strong, stable signal for my home network? I'm not very wireless network savvy, so help would be greatly appreciated

DEI37

As far as these Linksys WRT54G routers go, the only ones that you can use "hacked" firmware on is V1-4. V5 isn't a Linux based box, and therefore, there is no open source code for it in the aftermarket. I've looked all over, but just don't have anything. Larger antennae, and maybe a repeater may be required for me to get to the garage. Thankfully, my WLAN is secure. It's been probed (on purpose, with my approval more than once), and nobody has gotten in. Probably with time it could happen, I'm sure.

If you're curious, WEP128 is enabled, DHCP is on, MAC filtering is on for four NICs, DHCP hands out four IP's...I NEED three, occasionally four, and SSID broadcast is enabled. That's gotta happen for the other two WLANs my laptops try to pick up on.

__________________
Generally speaking, if you were to get what you really deserve, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

cyrnel

Biznatch, to maximize without changing hardware:

Move the LinkSys higher. Make sure the antenna is vertical. Locate to minimize the number and thickness of walls between it and clients. (Consider the depth of an interfering wall seen diagonally.) Shut off the LinkSys, fire up your microwave (with water inside), leave your wireless landline phone off-hook, then use your clients to survey for interference. Choose one of channel 1, 6, or 11, depending on which is strongest and is furthest (in channel numbers) from interfering neighbors. Set the LinkSys and let the clients follow.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

cyrnel

Aye, it is sad. Good thing there are a few bazillion V1-4 models in circulation. I think Staples et al still sell V4 for $20-25 on sale.

Edit: Here's OpenWRT's table of supported hardware. Not to say it's the only game in town, but it does a good job of documenting which isn't supported, why, and therefore lets you know which are unlikely to ever see 3rd-party firmware support.

http://wiki.openwrt.org/TableOfHardware

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

biznatch

Still, would buying an AP make the signal stronger?
and how exactly does an AP work? Is it connected by wire to the router, or is it put somewhere strategic between the router and the client(and powered by an AC adapter)?

cyrnel

The WRT54G AP should be enough. You could install another AP but it isn't needed unless you're dealing with a very big or wireless-unfriendly home. Anyway, an incredibly strong signal isn't good. You could buy a 5W amplifier but it'll just carry the signal out to the bad guys. More important is avoiding interference from neighbors and devices in your house. That way you don't need a superman signal to get a solid connection.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195