Which type of Wireless Security is best?
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If you remember a little while back I wrote an article on wireless security and I briefly mentioned that you should make sure that its turned on, and I mentioned that at a minimum you need to have WPA.
Now is the time to explain the differences between the different types so you can understand why I make the recomendations that I do.
There are 3 main types of Wireless security for your router. They are WEP, WPA and WPA2.
WEP Encryption – (Wired Equivalent Privacy) 1997
This form of security has a few flaws. The most noticeable being that the encryption is done in plain text. It can be set to handle 64 bit encryption and 128 bit as well. This format uses RC4 for its traffic key. This is a very short key, and requires less packets to determine the network password.
Tests have been done on secured WEP Networks, and the key was determined in about 1 minute. There are software packages that are readily available for people to download in order to hack into this type of network. The latest ports have even been setup for the iPhone. The info I saw showed an iPhone hacking a network in less than 2 minutes.
WPA – (WiFi Protected Access) 1999
This is still using the RC4 stream, but the key type was changed to TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol). This was designed to replace the older, failing WEP format. This format was designed to fix some of the flaws from WEP, but still needed to communicate with the older hardware. This meant that a flaw was available for hacking in order to find the key. This flaw is only able to decrypt short packets that were known to contain data.
WPA2 – 2006
This is a newer protocol, and might not work with all the older equipment that is still in some networks. Some hardware will need to be replaced, or if you are lucky just have the firmware updated.
Based on the WPA format, WPA2 uses a much stronger advanced encryption standard, rather than RC4.
With WPA2 being the stronger format available, this is the best option for your network. While nothing can ever be truly secure, there are steps that you can take to make it harder for hackers to retrieve your personal data.
1. SSID (Service Set IDentifier) – try not to use common words or names for your network. Use random letters B2BIR or pick an acronym that you can remember. ROY G BIV, JJASONDJFMAM, or SOHCAHTOA works for me.
2. Once you have the network setup there should be an option to disable broadcast of your SSID. This is why having a random acronym that you can remember makes it easier for you to enter your credentials
3. Turn on the MAC (Media Access Control) Filter. This means that only approved MAC addresses are allowed to connect to your network.
*note – While 99% of network cards have this information hard coded onto the hardware, there are some network cards allow you to type in your own MAC Address for the card. This is primarily used to hack networks and to bypass licensing restrictions for software. I own one of these cards, and they are extremely handy for those situations*
4. Change your Network Key in intervals, ie every 3 – 7 days. This is a manual process and requires all clients to update as well.
5. Use a NetBEUI protocol for file sharing (Advanced users only). As most people do not have this option enabled, and rather than using the IP address of the machine it uses the computer name to authenticate.
6. While setting up the DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) on the router, set the available amount of licenses that it delivers to the exact number of machines on your network.
7. Don’t use 192.168.0.1 as your default address for your router.
8. Change the admin login and password on your router.
While some of these are basic and should be done, others are more advanced, and unless you feel comfortable, should be avoided, or you might need a professionals help you to set these options in place. I am not able to post screen shots for setup as there are hundreds of manufacturers, and each one does things just a little bit differently.
I am happy to help you as much as I can through the comments, or I can do some consulting for you to assist with your setup.
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The other day I needed to be able to convert a PDF to a word file so I could edit the text. I tried the adobe software but the formatting became all messed up and I thought that there had to be a better way.
I did some searching and now you get to benefit from my time. I found a great tool that does a better job of keeping the formatting intact. Just like the next user I am a little leary of installing unknown software an this removes that problem as well.
I found a website that will allow you to upload the file and do the conversion online. It did a great job of keeping the formatting and it allowed me to get the word version of the file.
The website is pdftoword.com simple enough? Atleast it has an easy to remember name!
Just upload the file that you would like to make into a word file, and it will perform its magic. Once it is complete, you get an emailed copy of the Word file.
Try it out, and let me know what you think!
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Today’s topic is a good one.
Have you ever gone to your favorite website and not seen any updates, or wondered if it was online? Well there is a wonderful website that you can use to test to see if your favorite site is still up and available for the world to see.
This website will check to see if your favorite site is still up and running, or if you have a connection problem to that site. Simply type in the URLl that you are looking for, and it will report the status back to you.
They have conveniently named it:
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com
If the site is up, it will report back to you that it’s just you, and you can know that your DNS settings are just needing a bit of time to refresh.
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Just what is this DNS thing I keep hearing about?
Out there on the intertubes, there is a thing called DNS. This stands for Domain Name System, and its very important to you and everyone else out on the net.
The best way to think of it is that DNS is your phone book, plain and simple.
To a browswer searching on the internet, it wants the address of the place that you are trying to get to. Say you are trying to get to google.com. Your browser really wants to see you type in http://74.125.67.100 but lets face it. How many of you are going to remember that number?
Here’s where DNS comes in. you can remember google.com right? well DNS tells your computer and browser that google.com = 74.125.67.100. Hence DNS is your phonebook to the internet. It links the address to the name of the site.
There are lots of DNS servers on the net, and sometimes it takes a while to update all around the world. Normally changes can update in a few minutes up to 48 hours depending on your internet service provider.
If your favorite website (www.dutchgeek.com) changes their IP address (phone number) on the net, its the DNS servers that need to update to make sure that dutchgeek.com has the right address. During this update, you might not be able to see the site, or might see an older version of the site until the change has made its way all around the world.
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