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Question about Linksys WRT54G

I'm a newbie to wireless (less than one day) and I have a security question about the Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router/Firewall.

On the Advanced Wireless Settings screen there is a choice for Authentication Type: Auto or Shared Key. Auto is the default setting. This is what the guide says about Auto: "The default is set to Auto, which allows either Open System or Shared Key authentication to be used. For Open System authentication, the sender and the recipient do NOT use a WEP for authentication."

Does this mean what I think it means? If I set it to Auto then anybody who can find my SSID can hook up to my connection? What if I'm also running WEP or WPA, if I choose "Auto" does that mean people still do not need a key? If this is so then why is the default set to "Auto"?

Reply to
Von Fourche
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/* Shared Key or Open Key. Shared Key is when both the sender and the recipient share a WEP key for authentication. Open Key is when the sender and the recipient do not share a WEP key for authentication.

*/

Note that this is for authentication only, if you want to be able to hide the details of your WEP/WPA/Radius authentication handshaking. In most cases you want to leave this set to "Open" (or Auto) so that anyone can try to authenticate.

Note that only those with the right WEP/WPA/etc keys will actually be able to connect and pass traffic...

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

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