Argh.. you do the right thing.. and then...

Actually, Aussie law, as many other countries, do not permit you to bypass the hardware copyright protection; which all legally purchased copies have. Making backing up basically illegal. Tricky business.
 
I recently sold my vBSEO licenses over the weekend and bought myself a new router today.
Anthony Parsons said:
WPA2 is extremely difficult to crack according to experts on this... I did my homework with wireless networks, and most conjecture is still based on the old WEP protocol which is useless. WPA2 for a home or small office wi-fi is substantially adequate security.
Click to expand...
I read that same consensus. I made it a point to look for WPA2 units.
There is no requirement to disconnect your wi-fi to secure your network, that is conspiracy nonsense.
Click to expand...
I can attest to this. I have disconnected my router's antenna thinking it would kill the signal to our network, but instead, I have realized that WiFi is an on-board technology.
Most routers today will allow you to specify IP's / MAC addresses of the machines allowed to connect, which is an additional security function you can use to stop your kids giving out the access to their mates and such, which is how issues can and do arise, or they begin plugging in all sorts of stuff using the wi-fi, that you don't know about.
Click to expand...
That is true. And one of the examples is in this thread. Someone can download pirated stuff and pin you for it using the IP address your network is using. So, you can actually be arrested for such things. Not the perpetrator that illegally downloaded it. He'll run like a scared little girl.
Kim said:
Woooowsers my connection is literally twice as fast!!!
Click to expand...
The reason why the connection is twice as fast is because people were overloading traffic in your network. So, this means drops in connections. I had recently been through that, Comcast's modem dropped connection a more than a few times. Frustrating. Pushed me to the limit and finally made the decision to get a new router.
As we are on ADSL not ADSL2+ our connection has never been great, but it has been worse lately (now realise it must be the leechers :cautious:)
Click to expand...
Yes, it is. Leechers. What's worse is that you could have given those leechers the keys to your computer. Actual computer. My story where I said "I told him off?" I meant putting a file on my computer and told him GTFO.

Wireless technology is dangerous game. Dangerous.
 
Carlos said:
Don't use that excuse to law enforcement, or even the courts. They won't agree.

The facts will be on paper, so you really can't talk your way out of it.
Click to expand...
obviously i am not worried about it.
my moral compass does not take me to too far out of legal territory.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
WPA2 is extremely difficult to crack according to experts on this... I did my homework with wireless networks, and most conjecture is still based on the old WEP protocol which is useless. WPA2 for a home or small office wi-fi is substantially adequate security.

There is no requirement to disconnect your wi-fi to secure your network, that is conspiracy nonsense.

Most routers today will allow you to specify IP's / MAC addresses of the machines allowed to connect, which is an additional security function you can use to stop your kids giving out the access to their mates and such, which is how issues can and do arise, or they begin plugging in all sorts of stuff using the wi-fi, that you don't know about.

If you want to go to a further extreme, you can use an additional cheap computer you have laying around as a RADIUS server and use WPA2 Enterprise, which acts as an authentication system to your wi-fi before a user can connect to it, being you must manually approve the user to access the system.

Giving wi-fi access is not giving access to your network either... as you should never leave your network group name as default for security purposes. This way, the network group name must be known to join it and access other computers / data storage devices.
Click to expand...

Just to correct a couple of points,

Using MAC addresses to secure access to a WiFi network does not work. Many WiFi traffic sniffers will watch the traffic between devices connected via WiFi and extract the unencrypted MAC address, then you can just spoof it and bypass any form of MAC address protection.

On most SoHo routers once you join the WiFi network you are in the same broadcast network as any other device be it connected via wired or wireless means. Windows will be spamming the network with the workgroup/netbios names of all machines and starting master browser votes. Getting these names is extremely simple. OSX will also do the same with the Autoconf service.

Personally I use WPA2-AES Enterprise at my house using a Cisco Aironet 1240g WiFi access point.
 
I just disabled the WiFi (ethernet cable is fine by me I only use my desktop and don't like laptops anyway) removed the aerial and reset the password. Hopefully that will keep the little pests out.
 
Kim said:
I just disabled the WiFi (ethernet cable is fine by me I only use my desktop and don't like laptops anyway) removed the aerial and reset the password. Hopefully that will keep the little pests out.
Click to expand...
Disabling wifi in the router config is sufficient to be honest, they can't get on without a direct LAN connection if Wifi is disabled.
 
Floris said:
Actually, Aussie law, as many other countries, do not permit you to bypass the hardware copyright protection; which all legally purchased copies have. Making backing up basically illegal. Tricky business.
Click to expand...
Yep, that is what I found with a little research. It is legal to have a backup copy of your DVD / movie purchase in Australia, however; it is illegal if you have to circumvent any copy protection methods on the disc.

Many discs now available in Australia actually have removed the copy protection for this purpose, allowing a digital backup to be made, however; Hollywood movies don't. The disc cover on some discs goes as far as to state the disc may be backed up for digital use.

Interesting... one law says yes, then another says no. No wonder the industry has issues with this.
 
Deebs said:
Using MAC addresses to secure access to a WiFi network does not work. Many WiFi traffic sniffers will watch the traffic between devices connected via WiFi and extract the unencrypted MAC address, then you can just spoof it and bypass any form of MAC address protection.
Click to expand...
Yep, agree, I have read that... however; its not common place to most home users and would require a little more effort and knowledge to achieve. If you have those skills already, then I doubt any wi-fi is safe to those persons.

Sure, if you lived in an apartment building, then I guess chances would increase of being leached, but in houses... the broadcast signal is good, but not that good that you're exposed beyond a neighbour or two directly surrounding you. A WPA2 encryption will suffice 99.9% of the time without extra effort.

This type of thing is like arguing about server security. The minority of people on the planet who have the skills to get into any type of server... do you go stupid with security, or do you do the best you can with the most affordable solutions to keep out the amateurs, use backups, etc, then deal with an issue IF it occurs from a professional who has the skills to hide their tracks? Because that is the tricky part... hiding your electronic tracks from the guru's who are going to track you down.

WPA2 Personal with a decent key strength is going to keep out 99.9% of people from your wi-fi, as they will just try to target the next person, looking for the least secure connection.

Deebs said:
Personally I use WPA2-AES Enterprise at my house using a Cisco Aironet 1240g WiFi access point.
Click to expand...
This is what I'm thinking I may have to shift to myself when I move from the burbs to apartment living in the city in 2013 when our place is built. 500+ apartment complex I can envisage issues occurring if not secured well.
 
Top Bottom