Wireless Network Security Question

F

freaky

OSXer
I have a Linksys Etherfast Firewall Router which also connects to a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router. I followed the security instructions that are posted on Linksys' website. Is this good enough or do I need to do more? The only computer that connects to the network through WiFi is my PowerBook. I have two other Windoze computers and an iMac connected which all have file sharing on.

Yesterday on my PowerBook I received a prompt from Little Snitch asking if I wanted to allow connections to something.charter.com. I use BellSouth so I'm assuming one of my neighbors who has Charter cable modem service was trying to connect to my network. Is there any way that they could be connecting to my network and accessing my computers? I did enabled the option on the Linksys router to only allow connectiosn from computers whose MAC addresses are entered (just the PowerBook). I also can only access the network if I type in the network name I specified on the router and enter the Key # that I generated on the router. If they can't connect to my router, is there anyway they could be connecting to the PowerBook?

Also, appx how many feet would be Wireless G router allow a computer to connect from (it's in a house).
 
Little snitch would only tell you if it was your computer trying to connect, not your neighbour's computer trying to pass through the wireless access point.

Just as a general rule, with wireless access - do everything on the access point that's recommended, and then pretend you didn't. That is, consider the wireless access point to be a completely untrusted connection to the entire internet, and any computer that connects to it (whether through wireless or ethernet) to be connected directly to the internet without a firewall.
 
Oh, sorry, didn't answer completely - all the setup you did will improve things; that will stop casual people from using your access point to access the internet, or trivially eavesdropping on your network.

But you also need to know that someone with the knowledge can spoof MAC addresses, figure out the network ID, and break the key number, in a matter of a couple of hours.

As for distance, that depends again on how casual or 'effortful' your supposed intruder is. Someone with just a wireless antenna on their laptop would probably pretty much have to be on the same block. Someone who would go to the effort of making a directional antenna (pretty easy actually - a french fry scoop or a pringles can will get decent results) could be quite a distance away.
 
scruffy,

Thanks for the advice. I've been using the wired Linksys router for years and haven't had any problems. I'm kind of concerned now with the wireless router (which I really want to keep using). I have files for my work on my computers on my network. If someone were to get in my network, would they be able to easily delete all of my files?

Would you think people could reach my WiFi network from up to a 1/4 mile away? Is there anyway that I can set up some type of software that will alert me when someone tries to connect? I saw in the Linksys router software there's a place to see what computer names are connected to the network which is kind of neat, I just wish I could be alerted when a new computer access the network.

Also, how could they see what MAC address would have to be spoofed when they would need to get into the router/network to see which one is allowed? (I only have one address entered) If a computer with one MAC address is already accessing the router/network, will it allow another to connect even though it's the same number.
 
I have a question for a friend. She has:
Powerbook G4
Mac OS (10.3.4)
G4
Memory: 1000 MB

linksys router is the BEFVP41.
access point is a netgear me102.

She wants to set up her wireless so that she is the only one allowed to use the wireless connection. She wants to set up a password security connection. Airport Admin Utility does not see her base. Netgear came with a Windows only CD.

What does she need to do this? She does not want anyone else to use her wireless connection.
 
freaky said:
I saw in the Linksys router software there's a place to see what computer names are connected to the network which is kind of neat, I just wish I could be alerted when a new computer access the network.
Click to expand...

I think it's conceivable to write a cron job that calls either an AppleScript or a shell script to check what host names are connected and alert you if a host name appears that you don't recognize (you'd have to pass these to the script to begin with).


freaky said:
Also, how could they see what MAC address would have to be spoofed when they would need to get into the router/network to see which one is allowed? (I only have one address entered) If a computer with one MAC address is already accessing the router/network, will it allow another to connect even though it's the same number.
Click to expand...

Someone could conceivably do a brute-force attack and spoof all possible MAC addresses trying to gian access. With the right software that really wouldn't take that much time. It's not actually that hard to spoof a MAC address. For example, many routers have the ability to do that by design since some ISPs use a MAC address to authenticate customers, you may have to imprint your computer's MAC address on your router to get it to connect (get it?)

As for whether the correctly spoofed MAC address will work, I'm not sure really, since it probably depends on how the timeouts work. I'd check the Apple Knowledge Base ( http://discussions.info.apple.com/ ) for info on that.

HTH (a bit)
 
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