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Improving wireless home network security?

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I live in a densely populated urban area and have become a bit concerned about the security of my wireless home network. All of my PC's are connected wirelessly and run Windows XP Pro, nortorn antivirus, and zone alarm software firewall. I consider myself fairly technical (i.e. build my own PC's, aside from notebooks, and work in software), however, I am not at all a "network" guy. Below is the basic configuration of my wireless router.

Does anyone have any additional security suggestions? I'm open to software and hardware possibilities under $400, including replacing my router, and any other suggestions about my set up.

- Linksys Wireless Router WRT54G
- WPA-PSK turned on
- MAC filtering turned on
- SSID Broadcasting Disabled
- Zone Alarm software firewall on each client

Also, can you run WEP and WPA concurrently?


Thanks in advance.

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I have the same router. You've done almost as much as you can. The two things that you missed are changing the base NAT address and the admin password in the config of the router. And no, you can't run WEP and WPA at the same time. Also, install SP-2. It has updated security for Wi-Fi setups that can do you some good.

I don't live in an urban area, so I don't actually HAVE to worry as much, but some basic security is never a bad idea.


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Reply to peartree
- 0 +

I'd also use static IP's as well as changing the address scheme to something other than the default Linksys IP scheme. But with all your doing right now, especially if your using WPA, then you have very little to worry about. If you do use WPA make sure your password is at least 20 characters. I'd also make it alphanumeric and put one or two capital letters in there. The WPA password is vulnerable to a brute force attack if it's short.

Reply to kwebb
- 0 +

I think the only thing that would make you more secure for under $400 would be a linux router w/ wifi or running linux on everything.

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Reply to folken
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Wireless Networking > Wireless General Discussions > Improving wireless home network security?
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