Only person in complex with internet; should I worry about hackers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Go Tyler
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Go Tyler

I have been setting up my wireless network and making sure the router works
and has at least wpa set. I changed my attenae strength to 50% on my router
because 2.4ghz linksys usb adapter picks the signal up fine at 50%.

However, I know for a fact that within 500 feet of me there is not one
person with internet access. Do I really need to be worried about someone
intercepting my wireless traffic? If they are not close enough to get my
signal, obviously I can sleep a little better at night, right?
 
"Go Tyler" said:
I have been setting up my wireless network and making sure the router works
and has at least wpa set. I changed my attenae strength to 50% on my router
because 2.4ghz linksys usb adapter picks the signal up fine at 50%.

However, I know for a fact that within 500 feet of me there is not one
person with internet access. Do I really need to be worried about someone
intercepting my wireless traffic? If they are not close enough to get my
signal, obviously I can sleep a little better at night, right?
Click to expand...

Try a search on "War Driving", the practice of driving around in
a car, searching fur un-secured WiFi setups.

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q="war+driving"&kgs=1&kls=0

There is no WiFi at my house, so you can drive up and down
my street all you want :-)

Paul
 
You provide the internet access. All they need is an inexpensive antenna, a
wireless Ethernet card and a computer. 500 feet is not enough. There are
some very good antennas available.
 
Go Tyler said:
I have been setting up my wireless network and making sure the router works
and has at least wpa set. I changed my attenae strength to 50% on my router
because 2.4ghz linksys usb adapter picks the signal up fine at 50%.

However, I know for a fact that within 500 feet of me there is not one
person with internet access. Do I really need to be worried about someone
intercepting my wireless traffic? If they are not close enough to get my
signal, obviously I can sleep a little better at night, right?
Click to expand...

If you have a full 63 character WPA-PSK encryption with random letters,
symbols and numbers, you've done a lot to protect yourself and I doubt
anyone could break into your network unless they were brute forcing it 24/7
and even then, is it worth it? If you change the code every so often
that'll help too. And remeber, your personal WPA encryption key is only for
the initial handshake; the router will change the code at what ever interval
you direct. I think the minimum is every 10 minutes.
There's a simple program available called Wi-Fi Defense that provides
rudimentary notification if someone attempts to join your wireless network.
Google it. I think you can get a free trial.
 
I have been setting up my wireless network and making sure the router works
and has at least wpa set. I changed my attenae strength to 50% on my router
because 2.4ghz linksys usb adapter picks the signal up fine at 50%.

However, I know for a fact that within 500 feet of me there is not one
person with internet access. Do I really need to be worried about someone
intercepting my wireless traffic? If they are not close enough to get my
signal, obviously I can sleep a little better at night, right?
Click to expand...

Since you're using WPA, I would say it's relatively secure. Adding
MAC address filtering should be another layer of security to prevent
anyone from using your network for internet access. We all know any
script kiddie can easily crack a WEP key in under 24 hours so
definitely stay away from WEP. If you're ultra-paranoid, you can
assume your wireless network is inherently insecure and put a VPN
server on your network. So basically you would have to connect to
your wireless network then VPN into a VPN server to gain access to
your internal resources.
 
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