I am using a WEP wireless modem that does not have the ability to do WPA.
I have my file sharing turned off on the wireless computer (laptop) and use it in my home only. I have no interest in connecting computers together to share files, it's strictly a wireless internet connectivity setup.
Is there any way to secure the data that passes over the wireless so that it is not available to hackers without buying a different router? I want the data that I send over the air to be relatively secure and I want to make sure no one accesses my system via the wireless.
Actually, it is possible to secure a wireless network against both intrusion and sniffing without any encryption of any type. It's called a VPN (virtual private network). The random user connects to the network and is give a totally useless IP address by the DHCP server. The default gateway goes only to the VPN server. Without the complex authorization and authentication keys needed to connect to the VPN, the random user gets nowhere. However, if they successfully authenticate with the VPN, a new additional IP address gets issued, with a gateway that points to the corporate LAN or to the internet. At this point, it looks just like a normal wireless connection, except that everything is encapsulated and encrypted inside the VPN packets.
The catch is that your home network will need some type of local server that can terminate the VPN. As such, it's not really a suitable solution for home networks but might give you some ideas. If I were to propose such a system, I would need a router that can terminate the VPN, such as a Sonicwall, Netgeear or Netscreen VPN router. The wireless could be provided by a simple wireless access point (or wireless router with the router section disabled) or by a VPN router that has built in wireless. I'm too lazy to itemize models. That will work, but with the added hardware and complexity, you may as well just buy a router that does WPA and forget the VPN.
I was thinking more along the lines proxy software on both ends of the wireless, where the user could define the method of encryption or set up a table to change the key every so often automatically, most machines with internet access can easily maintain time within a few seconds, so the keys could be changed on a predefined schedule. This would be software running in the PC, so perhaps this is a weakness.
Oh and of course you have changed the parameters, your original question was whether it was possible to secure WEP and now it's not in the picture. :)
Incidentally, the client software that I have in mind would require two licences to be legal and the cost would exceed that of a home router that did WPA.
Will these terminate a VPN that originates with WiFi clients, or just terminate VPNs that originate on the Internet? I've always thought it was the latter...
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