Re: 128 bit WEP

On 2007-12-28, Unruh <unruh-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ignoramus14384 <ignoramus14384@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On 2007-12-27, Unruh <unruh-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ignoramus7897 <ignoramus7897@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On 2007-12-26, Unruh <unruh-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ignoramus4611 <ignoramus4611@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Is 128 bit wep any more secure than 64 bit wep?

This is in context of an apartment building.

The wifi router in question, unfortunately does not support WPA.

How much security do its owners really have?

As a previous post says, look at
http://www.aircrack-ng.org
It claims 3-5 min is enough time to collect enough info ( using active
techniques) to crack 128 bit WEP.
Of course your attacker must want to crack you,and must have the tools to
do
so. Unfortunately neither of those are under your control. Thus, yes, WEP
is better than nothing. But if y our attacker is determined, it is not much
better than nothing. If he is not, then you should be fine.

I think that I will start looking for a new WPA capable wifi
router. This is very unfortunately, as they are unable to set it up by
themselves.

Maybe if you were to tell us what your attack threat was, we could help you
more. Ie, if you are worried that the other apartment dwellers will connect
to the internet via your router and dsl connection and hog the whole
bandwidth, then simple WEP is probably sufficient to discourage them. After
using it and discovering that it is not sufficient (ie finding that your
apartment neighbours are using your bandwidth and using up your quota of
bytes transfered from your ISP) then you can escalate to buying a new
wireless router. Or you can simply disable wireless and use wired
connections. Or you can buy a new router ($20 on boxing week sales).

WPA is not that much more difficult than WEP on Linux.

Who are "they"?


They are my parents. They stubbornly refuse to do system
administration. My dad has used computers since the 60s and yet does
not want to learn sysadmin stuff etc. Whateverr.

The threat model is that some resident of their apartments would abuse
their bandwidth.

Without other evidence just use WEP and do not worry.
If they get their bandwidth abused, then you can persuade your mom to learn
some sysadmin.
Mind you I have not found WPA very hard to do at all. You do have to set up
the modem to use WPA, and your system to do so, but that's it. But if it is
too difficult, let it be. There are more worthwhile things to fight with
your dad about.


It is not hard to set up WPA, the problem is that ther old wifi router
only supports WEP. I have WPA at home. While I hate the "keyring"
implementation of NM, stuff actually works.

i
.

Relevant Pages

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