1. Home
  2. Wireless Networking
  3. WEP/WPA vs Secure Tunnels

WEP/WPA vs Secure Tunnels

I am trying to decide on how best to secure my home wireless network.

From the many postings in the this newsgroup and articles on-line, WEP should not be considered.

I have a Linksys WRT54G V4 router which does support WPA. I have configured a laptop with Windows XP home to connect using WPA. I also have a desktop running Windows 2000 on which I have gotten wpa_supplicant running.

Am I better off running the router using WPA or should I just chuck everything and set up a secure tunnel using a machine running secure shell? If I do things this way, I am guessing my network would be open but checking of email etc would be confidential.

Any additional thoughts?

Thanks.

Reply to
Frank Hahn
Loading thread data ...

On Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:23:49 -0000, Frank Hahn wrote in :

  1. Stick with WPA. Bad idea to open your network.
  2. Use secure tunnel as well if you want extra security, since WPA only protects your wireless.
  3. To secure email, use SSL/TLS if supported by the email server.
Reply to
John Navas

John Navas wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Thanks for the list.

Until yesterday, I was only using WEP because one of the computers runs Windows 2000 and the Linksys Wireless card did not support WPA. I spent an hour or so installing wpa_supplicant. Until yesterday, I was not aware that it also ran under Windows.

I have a Linux machine that has secure shell running on it and I have it setup so that I can at least tunnel to it to check email, etc so my passwords are encrypted at least part of the way.

As of right now, my ISP does not offer SSL/TLS.

Again thanks.

Reply to
Frank Hahn

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:10:01 -0000, Frank Hahn wrote in :

Using ISP email just because it's there is a Really Bad Idea(c) IMnsHO:

  • Email address ties you to the ISP.
  • Lack of security features like SSL/TLS (as in your case).
  • Lack of Web and/or WAP (cell phone) access.
  • Reliability. etc. Instead I recommend using a good third-party email service.

I personally use and recommend free Google Mail (Gmail), which has a wealth of features, including POP/SMTP access over SSL/TLS (not supported by Yahoo), and essentially infinite archiving capability.

You can probably forward your ISP email to a new service.

I'm sending you a Gmail invitation in case you're interested.

Reply to
John Navas

John Navas wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yes, I am interested. I just checked my yahoo account and do not see it.

I have had others send invites and they have not showed up. Wondering if yahoo.com filters these out... ;)

Reply to
Frank Hahn

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 16:11:21 -0000, Frank Hahn wrote in :

First one bounced because I failed to fully unmunge your email address. Second try worked.

Perhaps they ran into the same problem I did.

Reply to
John Navas

You can create a GMail account without someone else inviting you.

formatting link
"Sign up for Gmail using your mobile phone" sends an invitation via an SMS message to your phone.

Reply to
dold

snipped-for-privacy@XReXXWEPXW.usenet.us.com wrote in news:ebdinv$h95$ snipped-for-privacy@blue.rahul.net:

Haven't gone mobile yet. Probably won't until our daughter gets older. ;)

Reply to
Frank Hahn

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.