How secure is my network?

Ratbear · 03-01-03, 08:44 AM

I have a Linksys WAP11 for my access point, and it is connected to my Gigabit NAT. The NAT gives the WAP a 192.168 number. I have locked the WAP down with WEP and also changed my SSID.

My question is: how secure is my network? I mean, can someone just use my internet access if they got in or can they accually see my folders on my hard drives with the right tools?can they browse through my 3 computers on the NAT and delete or copy or whatever they want? or is the wireless access they get from my WAP just allowing internet access and nothing more? I notice we don't have My Computer on our Axim's but what about a person using a laptop, can they browse network connections? Hopefully I have explained this correctly. Thanks for the info in advance. :rolling:

mattf · 03-01-03, 09:10 AM

WEP is crackable. Not that your shouldn't use it, but just so you know. They key is sent in such a way that tools like WEPcrack can get it. It takes a while to do this though.

You should enable MAC address filtering, limit the number of DHCP leases (or use static IPs) to limit the number of machines that connect to your AP.

Ratbear · 03-01-03, 09:19 AM

mattf,

OK, I see where I can add the MAC address filtering. I don't see where I can limit the number of IPs on this WAP?

But can they get into my servers? or do they only have access to my internet? If it is just internet I really don't care if I share it, but if they can look at my files/folders then I plan to tighten this done as best I can.

mattf · 03-01-03, 09:31 AM

not sure where you can limit the number of dhcp leases on your particular device. you may need to rtfm ;)

the mac addy filtering will accomplish much of the same as the dhcp lease limit - only a set number of hosts on connecting to your ap.

if a host is assigned an ip on your particular subnet (192.168.1.xxx) they are on your network. if you have any shares (including the default shares on nt/2k/xp) and easy to guess or no passwords.... well you get the picture.

Ratbear · 03-01-03, 10:16 AM

mattf,

Kool, ok I will setup the MAC address filtering then. I have real good passwords on all my servers as well as my FTP shares which are tightened down pretty good. Thanks

mattf · 03-01-03, 11:21 AM

looks like they are getting a little nasty on servers:

http://security.rr.com/probing.htm

commoved · 03-01-03, 12:48 PM

Just using a router offers protection from the script kiddies, because it hides the IP address of your computers. When I got cable access, I used to get some kind of attack just about daily. When I put in a WiFi access point (aka router), the attacks went to zero.

Changing your SSID is not a security measure. A lot of WiFi software auto-detects the SSID and asks if you want to join.

If you are in a rural area, the just looking out the wndow is a great secuirty measure! :) In an urban area, consider running a software firewall on your PCs and servers (Zone Alarm, Norton Internet Security, or Macafee). Hardware firewalls don't help if somebody tries to get in through WiFi.

You can also turn off file sharing on your PCs. A server is a server is a server, so you probably want file sharing on the server.

Make sure you have all the Microsoft security patches installed. Most serious attacks use known weaknesses in Windows. Microsoft offers patches for those weaknesses. Use them. They're free.