Peter wrote: > radish wrote: >> 1) MAC filtering is entirely useless. > Agreed. MAC filtering is mostly an incredible hassle.
Word. MAC filtering is nearly as hard to manage as the olden days of each PC needing manual TCP/IP address assignments. It will drive you crazy. >> 2) Steve Gibson is, IMHO, a pompous snake oil salesman. > > He's a bit of an amateur posing as a professional. Still, I've gotten > something from his site now and then. I too find an occasional nugget but he's mostly selling snake oil Read Bruce Schneier for professional guidance. Bruce recently posted about how his home WiFi is all in the clear. >> 3) Feel free to use a 20 character passphrase if you like, it's >> certainly true that the longer the better. Only up to a point. Longer is only better if there is more entropy. Using "four score and seven years ago, our forefathers..." has about the same security as a three character password. The fundamental problem with passwords is that if they are strong, no one can remember them. So they write them on yellow stickies. Realistically, you are unlikely to be attacked over your WiFi network, as that requires the bad guys to be withing a mile of your house. Its far more likely that your cable modem's lame security is the weak link, and like chains, its all about the weak link. The botnets have at least 100,000 Windows PCs ready and able to go. They come in through broadband connections. WiFi can't handle the bandwidth. Start with the basics. Change the SSID from Linksys to something personal. Change the password to the router's admin page. Put a firewall between your DSL/Cable line and your house computers. And for gosh sake, don't use Windows. But consumers want convenience not security. -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
