sharing, security, firewalls & armadillos.

[Stone Fox]

I've got two computers networked together, they are connected via a wireless router which is also where they get their Internet.

This Router has a 128bit firewall, and the network has WEP encryption.

Is it safe to 'share' the HDD on one computer? I don't see why not but Windoze is trying to scare me out of doing it with big warning messages!

[jdrom17]

Windows does that no matter what kind of network you have. It's just opening a large security hole though as now anyone who compromises your network gains full access to that hard drive. Thats why MS doesn't recommend it.

WEP can be cracked in a couple minutes I believe. Might want to try WPA if you can. Also might want to enable MAC Address Filtering if you can along with disabling the broadcast of the SSID. Every little bit helps make it more secure.

[Stone Fox]

What should I be worried about? One of my neighbours piggybacking my broadband?

I've got the only wireless network within range that I can detect, and given I'm using a home router I doubt you can pick up my signal very far, I'm having issues in the next room!

[jdrom17]

Well in some places, people drive around looking for Wi-Fi networks to hack. I think thats more so in the the US though. War-Driving I think its called?

If they're both desktops, I'd seriously consider using a wired setup. Ethernet cables are pretty cheap and a lot faster than Wi-Fi. File Transfers across Wi-Fi under perfect conditions are pretty slow, and if you have issues connecting, then it's going to be even slower.

[Qbical]

if your dont broadcast your SSID and you have a strong WEP key then you should be fine against the average joe. if someone REALLY want to get in then u would have to work a little harder, but you should be fine.
and i also fully agree w JD, just take the couple hours, run the cable nice and enjoy 100 speed with a little more security.

[yahooadam]

+1 for the above

If your using a wireless connection, with WEP, anyone who drives by can hack in, in mere minutes
If your Sharing a HDD, they then have access to all the data on that drive

[Qbical]

+1 for the above

If your using a wireless connection, with WEP, anyone who drives by can hack in, in mere minutes
If your Sharing a HDD, they then have access to all the data on that drive

and how would u do it in 2minutes?

[jdrom17]

I'm sure if you look around the Internet you'll find how to...

Usually you need certain wireless adapters and what not. They actually showed it on the news here once, they got in a car with some hacker and drove in front of some store with WiFi and he was "in" within a couple minutes.

[yahooadam]

and how would u do it in 2minutes?
i didn't say 2 Min's, i said mere minutes

Secondly, the last news article i read said you could hack a 128WEP in 4 Min's flat

[jdrom17]

And if you have a speedy CPU, its even less ;)

[yahooadam]

i dont know how much of a difference the CPU makes

they collect loads of packets, and then try and decrypt them, the more packets the better, ofc crunching the packets uses CPU cycles

i guess there is some point where the number of packets constrains it, and the CPU constrains it

[Zefram]

i dont know how much of a difference the CPU makes

they collect loads of packets, and then try and decrypt them, the more packets the better, ofc crunching the packets uses CPU cycles

i guess there is some point where the number of packets constrains it, and the CPU constrains it

CPU speed does make a difference, and like you say, that depends on the connection speed inorder not to to let the slower connection and slower packets to hog the process down ;)

If you buy the parabolic antennas to the targeted wireless signal origin, you would get better result in hacking the network. People normally use 64-bit WEP, and avoid 128Bit WEP because 128-bit would slow the network to a crawl and limited the wireless radius.........

I protect my wireless network using a Mixed WPA2-PSK (on Linksys WRT54G v3.1, hacked with DD-WRT firmware), it provides good compatibility between newer adapters with WPA2 and older adapters (my mum PDA) with WPA.

Saying that, enabling WPA is enough to thwart any wardrivers because they would normally go with WEP-protected network or network with no security at all :p