Need help with WEP

[Lateralus]

Warning...I'm completely new to the whole WEP/WPA thing :p

I live in an apartment and my roomie and I have a cable modem hooked up to a wireless router. Both of our computers have wireless cards in them so that we can access the web.

What I have problems with is security...I think the other people in the apartment complex are using our wireless connection to access the web and thats not too cool with me. So I recently started reading up on WEP and got lost in all the computer talk.

Is there a way to have only my roomie and I access the web through our router? If so how do I go about setting this up? I realize it will still be vulnerable to those who can crack through the WEP key or whatever it is but i think this would be a good start to locking down our connection.

Thanks for the help...sorry if I sound like a complete moron but we all gotta start somewhere right?

[MntnMan8000]

Welcome Lateralus.

I am not going to give step by step, but I hope my overview will help. If you search the net you will find step by step instructions.

I will try to explain WEP with out all the computer talk. When you use WEP the wireless router, your room mates computer, and your own all share a password that keeps your network activity secret from your neighbors.

Plug your router into the computer via wire and do the following:

Enable WEP, it will ask for a key, type in a password.

Next time you or your room mate try to connect it will require the password. You only need one password even though there are two of you.

Periodically you should change the password you are using. Remember if you mess up you can always reset the router. I did it often when I was learning.

Additional security steps:

Each wired and wireless card has a "MAC Address" a digital fingerprint that is unique to that card. In your router is a section called "MAC Filtering" (or something similar). You can specify what MAC address can connect to your router.

If you are running Windows, open a command prompt and type in ipconfig/all. The MAC address will be labeled as "Physical Address.

Best of luck.

[Deadline3905]

well said mntnman8000 and FYI Lateralus it is easyer if u give some hardware that u have.. like what kinda router.. but yeah.. also.. in personal opinion i would say mac adress filtering is the way to go.. it takes a smart hacker to gain and spoof a MAC so.. yeah.. theres my 2 cent :P
Thanks,
Deadline3905

[Techie-Micheal]

Actually, spoofing a MAC address is a piece of cake. Figuring out which MAC address to spoof, perhaps not so easy, but to prove my point: http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=364

[MntnMan8000]

That is an interesting paper. I still feel that your average neighbor will not be able to spoof a MAC addresses and then gain access to my network. Even with that paper I think it would some time for even the most seasoned computer user.

[golfnut]

That is a good article and I think Micheal is right in that the average neighbor would not use these tools.

A hacker would be more interested in using these tools at a Hotspot or any wireless location that requires a username and password to access the network.

If you think other people are using your wireless network, access your router and check the DHCP list. You should only see you and your roomie's IP address listed.

Greg

[JoeTampa]

Actually, spoofing a MAC address is a piece of cake. Figuring out which MAC address to spoof, perhaps not so easy, but to prove my point: http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=364


Figuring out the MAC address to spoof is easy as well. Simply sniff the traffic on the AP - when you see a station sending traffic to the Internet (who is obviously using a valid MAC address), that's the one you use.