Desktop-Laptop w/ Wireless AP

EMT

So I've got a laptop and a desktop and taking both to college. I leave in 9 days. Trusting specs and such I got a wireless PCI card after asking in this thread: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16797
If you're curious the card is a D-Link DWL-G510.

It works okay, except the speed is not 54mbps even when they're right next to each other. Probably has to do with ad-hoc mode. The problem is, I'm running Windows 2000 on the desktop, and I had no idea how awful its wireless support was - it treats it just like a wired NIC, and only the bundled software will delve deeper. Not only is this sotfware pretty awkward, it doesn't support WPA/TKIP as the specs read - upon closer inspection that is *only* when you use Windows XP Zero Configuration! A college dorm is just asking for WEP to be broken... it isn't good enough.

So, unless there's some way for Windows 2000 to do it (question one- anyone heard of a third party program to get into a wireless card like XP does?), I'm going to return the PCI card, thanking my lucky stars I didn't rip the box apart to send in the rebates yet, and buy myself... a wireless access point? That's my second question: since, as you can tell, I'm pretty new to wireless, I'd like to check if it will really work the way I imagine it to. Perhaps it's only doable with a full fledged router; I'm avoiding that because I'd prefer to connect my desktop directly to the network and also have the most direct link possible between desktop and laptop (desktop can serve DHCP). Anyway, here's what I'd like to see happen.
- Connect extra NIC in desktop to WAP
- Connect power to WAP
- Connect wirelessly laptop to WAP at 54mbps
- Configure WAP for WPA/TKIP via.. a web interface or something
After checking through this I have to find one at decent price and brand and get it here before I leave.

It isn't so easy to get this info and I'm stuck trying to get tons of other stuff done before I leave good old Maryland so I'd be very grateful for your help.

EMT

Diagramatic terms...

School network -[Ethernet cable]- Desktop -[Wireless cards ad-hoc]- Laptop

is not acceptable, so will

School network -[Ethernet cable]- Desktop -[Ethernet cable]- WAP -[Wireless infrastructure]- Laptop

work with good encryption and no IP routing or NAT at the access point?

Straight_Man

Well, a router that can multimedia wuold be more robust for security. There are a few WAPs that are so-so-secure, BUT, they are really intended to extend router reach or for a sometimes on LAN access and I would not really call 80% of them really secure. NAT plus SPI plus WPA at a multimedia router would let you keep more security for your little mini-LAN, INSTEAD of using a wireless access point.

The desktop would be protecting itself with this structure, and the AP\gate-in could let many room neighbors access your connect into the school LAN through your desktop possibly-- right from their laptops or wireless-enabled desktops through YOUR AP.

You would need the desktop very much hardened to block this, and if you let it happen the school would think it was YOU doing what a hitchhiker was doing. Advice here would be a multmedia wired and wireless router, probably not an 11g due to price right now. IF your school LAN is hard wired, chances are the AP speed would at best end at the desktop box. Most schools do NOT have fiber to wall in dorm rooms. I'll let someone else speak up, this is my IMHO and point of view based on what I have to help folks recover from after the fact. Typically, FIRST part of fix was a hardenable router. THEN, you could:

School LAN{network cable}ROUTER{network cable to desktop, wireless to laptop}your two computers.

And an outsider would need to go through the router or directly hack into your lappie to go through it. router would protect all but someone in range of your wireless card in the lappie. Put something like Sygate and good AV on the laptop and you then can block as best you can a hack-in route through laptop. Router would also let you protect some from school LAN intrusion routes into your boxes, 'cuz nothing is perfect including school LANs.

If the school network is running at ethernet (non-Gigabit to rooms) in dorms, a wired router and a PCM-CIA wired NIC or embedded NIC for lappie would be one heck of a lot safer in sense of easier to secure and keep security tight and cheaper also. By going wired you auto-close a bunch of routes where many folks are close together in a dorm. And if you are at all close to being on a heavily limited budget, I would simply stick to wired for now until you know a lot about wireless security ALSO. NAT plus SPI plus WPA is considered normal requirement for anything with a complex multimedia LAN.

Also, when on wireless, you need every node end-node protected except a router, and you SHOULD have a firewall router for anything that could be always on these days. I spent less than $34.00 on a wired router with SPI adn port blocking capabilities and routing programmability. I am always on the net, and have no virals or malware beyond data miner cookies in last three months on XP OR Linux-- and my boxes and my mothers box are behind a router that is pure wired here.

EMT

That advice sounds alright. But if a WAP can do better than WEP I think it'd be secure enough, and I'd rather have my computer plugged directly to the school LAN (I don't know for sure but I think this is 100mbps). Since the comp has 2 NICs and I leave it in router's VPN anyway, buying a router isn't worth it. As for going wired with the laptop... it's got it, I use it right now for faster transfers than the crap wireless, but it's just not cool. I want to be online without cords - I can do that now, but the security and speed are insufficient.

My essential question though is: What's the best security I can configure on a little WAP connecting these two computers, and how is it configured?

khan

(To put in a quick aside: the best security my roomate and I have found in terms of preventing dorm-neighbors from logging on our AP is to buy an 802.11a AP. Same theoretical speed as 11g and no one else uses it =) ).

I think your best security (and simplest setup) would be to do this:

[school network]->ethernet cable->[wireless router]->ethernet cable to [desktop] and wireless to [laptop]. Enable 128 bit WEP, turn off SSID broadcasting, and turn up MAC addressing filtering. No one that is not your laptop would be able to access your AP that way.

Also, I have a pretty similar situation. I have a neighbor with a wireless AP that is WEP encrypted...if you turn off SSID broadcasting, no one but the most dedicated student would even know you had an AP. Just for fun, I tried to use Airsnort on my laptop to crack my neighbors WEP encryption. Left it running for about a week, all night and day, and it gathered 50 or so "interesting packets"...of the 10,000+ it needs to actually crack the WEP. I also tried using a "dictionary attack" that tries every word in its database as the password...also a failure. So if you take some pretty basic precautions, you really don't have anything to worry about.

EMT

Thanks khan, I missed your response. The day I was going to take the PCI wireless card back turned out to be 15 days after purchase, returns are good for only 14. Some bad luck eh?

So it looks like I'll be keeping this. And APs/routers sound too expensive. I'm glad to hear WEP isn't so bad, I'd probably change the key at least every month. I don't know that ad-hoc supports suppressing of the SSID broadcast, or MAC filtering. I'll probably do without - laziness will get the best of me - and see what happens.