Gaming About WiFi enctyption and their differences.

[test84]

Hi,

My WiFi security is currently WPA2-PSK with not broadcasting the network ID (SID, I think), but NDS cannot connect to it. Even though I don't always play online with my DS (I'm a tetris DS fanatic!) I was thinking on getting back to WPA. So even though I'm not broadcasting my network's name, how bad is those less secure WPA ones? Is it advisable to do so?

-tnx

 

[DinohScene]

I think the DS only supports WEP encryption.

It's advisable that if you use a simpler encryption that you should set up a MAC filter.
SO that you can control which device gets internet access and which one doesn't.

 

[Kittymat]

To connect your DS to your wifi it needs to be WEP, not WPA or WPA2.

WEP can be hacked within 5 mins if you have the correct equipment (about £30) so only change it to WEP to play and then change it back to WPA as this is much more secure, also on WAP do not use words (these can be hacked by dictionary hacking programs) use a long password with special characters, numbers, letters and capitals.



edit - beaten to it, MAC filters do not work, a simple MAC spoofer will bypass it.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

edit - beaten to it, MAC filters do not work, a simple MAC spoofer will bypass it.

You'd need to know the MAC address of a device in order to spoof it.

 

[Zetta_x]

edit - beaten to it, MAC filters do not work, a simple MAC spoofer will bypass it.

You'd need to know the MAC address of a device in order to spoof it.

Which is not trivial to get unless you are on the network or have psychic powers

 

[Rydian]

You don't have to be on the network to sniff the data. The data's flying around the air regardless.

If the data is encrypted with something like WEP that can be broken, then boom, there's your shit, including MAC addresses which are in some headers.

 

[Originality]

My phone can hack a WEP network in about 5 seconds. It takes a bit longer to hack WPA (I think it was an hour the last time I tried). WPA2 has been hacked, but the method was never released. It remains the most secure encryption method available to domestic WiFi.

NDS only supports WEP. PSP only supports WEP and WPA. Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 Slim all support WPA2. No idea about 3DS,

MAC filters only block out passive hacking tools. Someone with a bit of knowledge can easily get around it. Not broadcasting the SID helps prevent snoopers, but sniffers will be able to detect it without a problem. Generally, if someone really wants to get into your network, you either need more stages of defence (e.g. Software authorisation) or hardware encryption keys (akin to the type offered to WoW players).

But then again, none of this matters. Nobody wants to hack into your network. Even if you do set it to WEP and someone does hack into it, what would they do with an average domestic computer? Steal your Internet?

 

[test84]

Thanks to anyone who participated.

But then again, none of this matters. Nobody wants to hack into your network. Even if you do set it to WEP and someone does hack into it, what would they do with an average domestic computer? Steal your Internet?

My only concern is family photos that is on computers that are on the network, even though the folders are not shared, it's not hard to go through unshared folders on a windows machine, other than that, my internet is so slow, 128kbps (which gets around 13KiB per second! ) that doesn't worth it.