jblyth

I found this web blog over the weekend, which gives a much better description of what should be used (and what is a waste of time) with wireless security.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=454

With my wireless system at home I have had constant problems with my PDA failing to pick up an IP address or giving an “Unavailable” message. I had always thought this was caused by encryption, as the issue disappeared if I removed encryption. However, after reading the article above, I turned off “hiding” the SSID as it is stated that this is pretty useless as a security measure as any of the very freely available Wi-Fi locator programs show a hidden SSID anyway.

As soon as I turned on the hidden SSID (and changed to the better WPA-PSK encryption method) I found that my PDA connections are now 100% reliable.

Cheers
John in Sunny Carnarvon
Western Australia

Summary from the articles…

I've added SSID beacon suppression to the list of "worse than no wireless security at all" because it forces you to spew your wireless LAN configuration from your laptop everywhere you go. Security researcher Joshua Wright recently highlighted these dangers in this article. The problem with turning off SSID beaconing on your access point is that not only is it worthless, since the SSIDs are still easily detectible over the air, but it also forces your laptops to probe for the SSID

AND

For small businesses and homes, all you need to do is use WPA-PSK security with a random alpha-numeric pass-phrase that's a minimum of 10 characters long. If WPA security isn't available to you, at least run WEP as a 10-minute deterrence.

AND
Waste of money, resources, time
MAC filtering
Disable DHCP and use Static IP addresses
Signal suppression with expensive paint or antenna placement

Worse than no wireless security at all
LEAP (adding EAP-FAST to the list)
SSID Access Point beacon suppression (or "hiding")

Has nothing to do with security mechanisms
Just use 802.11a or Bluetooth

breley

Thanks for posting this. For those interested, a more complete guide of George Ou's wireless security recommendations (PDF format) can be found here.

__________________
breley | Aximsite/Mobility Site Review Staff, Administrator | Judge, Smartphone & Pocket PC Best Software Awards 2008
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