Secure your wireless routers!

I'm down the shore and I was running Netstumbler on the way down. I'd say over 70% of the wireless networks are insecure. Even more disturbing is that most of those networks haven't changed the defaults on the router at all. This is a call to action. Make sure you enable some type of encryption on your router and please change the SSID/password and do not broadcast it.

I'm actually going to get a wireless, I currently have one that's wired. Networking is a bitch.

Said By FroogleDoop

I'm actually going to get a wireless,

for a second I thought you wanted to buz a radio... wireless the noun is a radio in my ears :S

"Some sort" of encryption is really not even good enough and turning off SSID broadcast is completely useless. The router will still broadcast it's SSID, it just turns off the SSID beacon which makes its easier to find and makes it easier for users the automatically change networks. Any utility, such as netstumbler can get this through the routers probe requests, probe responces, association requests, and re-association requests all of which contain the SSID. WEP encrystion can be broken in a few minutes, although this may deter casual snooping. There are utilities out there that sit and generate traffic on you wireless network and after collection 5 million or so packets (3 or 4 minutes) they can figure out the key. Newer hardware supporting WPA provides much better security, but it does rely on the strength of your passwords and there are new tools out that can crack WPA with short password. Someone has written a mini RADIUS server that will run on the Linksys WRT54G/GS (http://www.tinypeap.com) which is likely the most effective way of protecting your wireless network around right now, asside from setting up you own RADIUS/PEAP server.

Said By Nihilistic Mystic

WEP encrystion can be broken in a few minutes, although this may deter casual snooping. There are utilities out there that sit and generate traffic on you wireless network and after collection 5 million or so packets (3 or 4 minutes) they can figure out the key.

I suggest you do some sort of research. 5 million packets on a home network will take DAYS unless you are actively flooding the AP with packet requests. Any type of deterent will stop 99% of the malicious types.

OK so 3 or 4 minutes is a bit of an exaggeration, but there are plenty of ways to generate traffic on a target network, there are toys for forcing de-auths of clients which generates traffic, and the best way re-injecting captured traffic, especailly ARP packets can easily be identified and generate a good amount of traffic which appears to come from a client and don't interfere with normal network operation. Also, if you use the WEP key generator included with alot of routers' several of them are flawed especially when creating WEP64 keys. WEP64 includes a 40 bit key length, flaws in these key generators reduce that to 21bits effectively, which can be brute force cracked in a few minutes.
EDIT:
Also it would seem I am a bit behind the times, there are tools out now that can crack WEP64 with about 200,000 packets adn WEP128 with about 500,000.

My brother and I have been trying to Secure our Wireless Network From a Heartless Neighoor who Steals our Internet

I steal the school's internet with my old laptop. Sit outside at the main entrance and play Counter-Strike during lunch. School doesn't block it at all. In fact, the only reason I bought a wireless card for my 7 year-old laptop was to do that. At home I plug it into our router.

hehe... my school is 100% wired... but if it weren't it probably wouldn't be blocked...

How do you possibly play counterstrike on a laptop... you gotta get pwned?

Said By Solidarity

How do you possibly play counterstrike on a laptop... you gotta get pwned?

I get killed regardless. Playing it with a usb mouse makes little difference in my Counter-Strike abilities. It just determines whether I get a poorly aimed-shot off or just die. I typically use a mouse though.

Oh because when you said "Lap-Top" the first thing that popped into my head is the little red thing you move the mouse with in the middle ... etc. lol

red touchpads ?

I'm sure he means the eraser head type.

They should make all wireless routers so that you have to WIRED into them to change settings...

That's an okay suggestion unless there are no computers on the network that are hardwired.

Manufacturers should say in the setup program that a password will be given or can be typed in by the user. It is not that hard to include this in the setup.

As long as you have a wired computer, that's fine.

Like Aron said, what if you don't have any wired clients?

I keep seeing this free wireless internet service called "Linksys" everywhere I go. They must have a good service.

I've seen others that offer a good service like "Netgear." I'm glad there are organizations like "Linksys" and "Netgear" that offer free internet to everyone.

It is troubling that the amount of insecure wireless networks keeps going up in ratio, not down. You would think that people would finally get a clue. Guess not.