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Wireless Broadband - How Safe?? (1 Viewer)

Gavin Haig

Well-known member
Bit of advice would be appreciated. My pc is currently plugged into telephone socket downstairs. In the near future I am probably moving the computer to an unused bedroom upstairs (no phone socket). To save running a cable I'd like to consider going wireless, but have heard all kinds of shock/horror stories re. dodgy types picking up your signal and emptying your bank account/running up massive credit card bill on your behalf...etc...etc

I am not computer-savvy, but would like to know whether going wireless would be a daft thing to do?

I'm assuming it is possible to connect your computer wirelessly to your phone socket.....you can, can't you??

Help!
 
Gavin,

Forgive me saying it so bluntly: the danger comes from lack of understanding of the very basics. As there are resources on this site for birdwatchers, so you may find it useful to read up on the basics of wireless broadband on any one of a number of other sites devoted to such a purpose.

I'm currently sat in my lounge using my laptop on my wireless network. I can detect two other wireless networks here too, both belonging to neighbours of mine. But the level of security on each is high enough: 28 key encrypted alpha-numeric. It would require a very high level of expertise to hack into these networks; as high if not higher than to get into a hard-wired machine. And once in, access to financial information would only be there if you stored it there. You can be confident in using your own wireless network if you learn enough to understand basic principles. It's certainly NOT a daft thing to do; it is certainly safe.

What IS a daft thing to do is to log onto any wireless network that is not your own, eg in a hotel, airport, office, etc where you are required to enter any financial information, card numbers, etc, without absolute and informed confidence of whose network it is. This is where the stories to which you refer arise - apparently public WiFi hotspots that require buy-in and which are really phishing for details. There's no risk of this in using your own network; it's specifically about using other networks.
 
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SiG said:
Gavin,

Forgive me saying it so bluntly: the danger comes from lack of understanding of the very basics. As there are resources on this site for birdwatchers, you may find it useful to read up on the basics of wireless broadband on any one of a number of other sites.

I'm currently sat in my lounge using my laptop on my wireless network. I can detect two other wireless networks here too, both belonging to neighbours of mine. But the level of security on each is high enough: 28 key encrypted alpha-numeric. You can be confident in using your own wireless network if you learn enough to understand basic principles. It's certainly NOT a daft thing to do; it is certainly safe.

What IS a daft thing to do is to log onto any wireless network that is not your own, eg in a hotel, airport, office, etc where you are required to enter any financial information, card numbers, etc. This is where the stories to which you refer arise.
Thanks very much for the feedback.

You're not a teacher are you? I'm pretty sure you just gave me a homework assignment ;)

Point taken!
 
Gavin Haig said:
Thanks very much for the feedback.

You're not a teacher are you? I'm pretty sure you just gave me a homework assignment ;)

No, I'm just a patronising old git ;)

I was still tweaking that post to try and make it more accurate ...
 
You will almost certainly need help setting up the wireless router - getting it to recognise the computer and feeding the ISP's numbers and so on. After that, it should recognise the computer automatically. If you have no close neighbours who are likely to use ypur connection you won't have to set the router's extra security but if you are in a densely populated area get someone to set the router so that it only recognises your computer, or set it to require a password.

For a normal house you should have no problem with the wireless bit, just make sure the route from the wireless modem to the computer is not through anything metal, like kitchen equipment.
 
If you can check out the deals at the moment with the various ISP's, I have wireless broadband via Wanadoo and they supplied the router and all the kit. The hardest thing about setting it up was typing the security code in....the number of times i transposed a couple of symbols.
 
Gavin Haig said:
Bit of advice would be appreciated. My pc is currently plugged into telephone socket downstairs. In the near future I am probably moving the computer to an unused bedroom upstairs (no phone socket). To save running a cable I'd like to consider going wireless, but have heard all kinds of shock/horror stories re. dodgy types picking up your signal and emptying your bank account/running up massive credit card bill on your behalf...etc...etc

I am not computer-savvy, but would like to know whether going wireless would be a daft thing to do?

I'm assuming it is possible to connect your computer wirelessly to your phone socket.....you can, can't you??

Help!
It depends who your neighbours are, I'd say! I live on a boring and traditional road (which I love!) and there are few neighbours that know a thing about computers - let alone networking. I feel pretty safe!

The radio signal does not travel that far, either.
 
If I remember correctly, the wireless signal of my Belkin router travels about 90 feet unobstructed, like through a garden door down the garden, but much less through walls so it will normally only be possible to use your signal from the next house or in the street, possibly across a narrow street.
 
Thanks to all for feedback......

I know I could go to the local computer shop to ask this Q, but if anyone is feeling indulgent - what hardware (and software?) do I actually need to achieve my aim (ie. move pc to spare bedroom but connect to Broadband telephone socket downstairs without wires - just 1 computer, no laptop)?? Oh - and what connects where?


Andrew Rowlands said:
Regarding security of wireless LAN's - read http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/index.php?p=42 for home LAN.
Andrew - thanks for this link. I foolishly went wandering around on this site and came to realise that the English language of which I have some command is sadly inadequate here!! ;) Here's why..........

"Last year when Microsoft shipped SP1 (Service Pack 1) for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP was the first OS to receive native WPA and WPA2 support. the ability to manage WPA globally on a domain level was a welcome addition to the original Windows Server 2003 to globally configure 802.1x and EAP on Windows XP. WPA adds strong* encryption to replace the easy to break WEP or even rotating WEP key algorithm. Even today, no other platform such as Linux or Mac OS has any native ability to globally manage wireless clients nor do they have the native ability to centrally manage the PKI requirements needed to enable strong authentication. Some third party wireless clients can integrate with third party management tools to push configurations via custom scripts, but this isn't nearly as easy as the Group Policy configuration built in to Windows Server 2003 nor is the additional cost zero."

Doh!!
 
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