wpa ....

I guess that means a bad connection. WPA is exactly the same as WEP encryption except for the key exchange mechanism. If it's "stable" with WEP, it should be exactly the same with WPA. Something else is going on.

It should be like that. If WEP works, so should WPA. What *ELSE* are you changing when you switch between WEP and WPA? Is it just one of the five wireless clients or all of them?

No. The risk is that someone will extract the WEP key and start sniffing your network. Your unspecified Windoze security system may be fairly secure as to keeping people from accessing the shares, but they can still sniff the traffic and extract juicy morsels from the captured traffic.

I would try again with WPA. I would also verify that you have a decent RF connection and are not losing packets. While you're at it, could I trouble you for some clue as to your wireless hardware?

If you are stuck with WEP because of ancient client hardware and drivers (as some of my customers are), then you might look into using a VPN to secure the connection. At that point, you could run an open system with no encryption, but require that the client connect and authenticate with the VPN server before being able to do anything useful. All the traffic would be encrypted inside the VPN tunnel.

I changed all of them....

Netgear router, linksys cards...

I could do that....I think Ill try the WPA again...

Related question, about security: I am about to try the WPA (have been using WEP from the start), however, does anyone have an idea how bad key extraction is WEP wise? I agree that there will be a few hackers doing war driving and perhaps extracting packets from the air, especially in or near college towns, but in suburbia and rural areas, is this a rampant problem? I agree that in the future this problem will get worse.... My own personal experience driving around my neigborhood with my laptop on and Netstumbler running shows that there are many people have "unsecured" wifi network with the SSID still showing "default" !

This may be true for the average clueless home user that is unable or unwilling to configure their own hardware. I don't blame them as the buzzword learning curve for wireless security is rather steep. I still don't know all the various modes and options for WPA-2 authentication. I do blame the manufacturers for shipping routers that are insecure out of the box. These manufacturers also suggest on their advertising that the routers are secure, but don't mention that they are insecure on arrival. I would be much happier if Netgear, Linksys, Belkin, and Dlink followed the example of 2Wire.com and shipped their wireless devices pre-configured to be secure.

Also, don't assume that if Netstumbler declares the access point to be unencrypted that it's not properly secured. See: |

Unfortunately, many kids love this sort of thing.

In which you write:

While I'm ranting on security, I have a really bad attitude about security by group rather than by individual. Having a common WEP or WPA key for a system is rediculous. The chances of social engineering or simple theft causing the key to leak out is far to risky to even consider WEP or WPA a useable security mechanism. Would you trust your co-worker with *YOUR* system passwords? Encryption should be individualized so that a leak or security breach by one person does not compromise the rest of the users or the rest of the system.

I very strongly second that!