Making the most of WEP encryption

NiGHTS

Story time!

I recently bought a NetGear WGR614v6 for my girlfriend and her roommates to allow for the setup of wireless in their apartment. WPA-SPK is enabled at the moment, but two of the girls' laptops (Sony and HP) are too old to support the protection apparently, rendering them unable to join the network altogether. Once in a while they'll be able to connect, but for the most part it will be unable to acquire a network address ...if even that.

The girls wish not to spend the extra $50 it would take to get a wireless G adaptor to allow for WPA to be supported on their computers, leaving me with the alternative of running WEP encryption on their router alone.

Now, my question is, what steps can I take to make sure that while they're using an extremely flawed protection scheme, they'll still be relatively secure enough to do online banking and victoria's secret shopping online? The girlfriend uses a Mac, so I don't think I have anything to worry about there - the other two would be left very vulnerable with the PCs. (for what it's worth, the Mac is the only one that connects to the wireless network everytime without a hitch, Prime )

So far, I've gotten this:
Change the key once a week
Make the key alphanumeric with at least 12 characters


Any and all help would be much appreciated, thank you!

Dave

Edit: forgot to mention one of the PCs uses ZoneAlarm, the other will have it set up shortly. Any other software that might be useful?

primesuspect

ha! the mac works

Sorry dude, there's no way to be absolutely sure of security using WEP. No matter how much you change the key, etc. Someone with a decent laptop and a decent set of tools can break WEP in a short amount of time.

Thrax

WEP can be broken in 60 seconds, now.

NiGHTS

Forgot to mention that of the computers, the Macintosh is also the oldest operating on the network - still recognizes WPA. :tongue2:

I realize how quickly and easily it is done, I'm just wondering if there is anything more I can provide for the two girls myself to make sure that I make it 61 seconds, rather than 60. If not with the protection itself, perhaps Windows network settings or extra software? Anyone want to discuss the advantages of a VPN, I think I read somewhere that adds to the security of a WEP network. My knowledge of all this is close to nil, so be gentil with the replys.

Running software firewalls would add to the security of the network, would it not?

primesuspect

realistically, you need to not worry about the wlan being cracked. WEP sucks, the end. There's nothing you can do about that.

What you CAN do is to mitigate the damage that can be caused. Ideally, you want to create a zone where even if someone hacks the Wlan, and gets access to it, all they can do is get on the internet with it. So make sure the member computers all have their firewalls on, and utilize good basic computer security - make sure there is a good password on each machine, no open file shares, and all patches up to date.

security by obscurity is the best measure if you MUST use wep.

NiGHTS

Appreciate it, Prime. Thanks.

GrayFox

Update the firmware on the cards that may add proper wpa support.