128-bit encryption - wireless access points

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

On Tue, Sep 18, 2001 at 12:45:04PM -0400, Douglas Melniker wrote:
> I know that many people have opened the Apple Airport and swapped the
> Orinoco silver card inside for a gold one, making it 128-bit secure.

I don't think that will get you anywhere.  The whole WEP security
design is broken in the form of its choosing weak keys.  The 128-bit
version is nearly no better than the shorter keys.  Either can be
broken quite easily.

Were I to do 802.11b right now I would go ahead and use WEP to keep
some simple opportunists out, but I would connect the base station to
a firewall that allowed nothing but ssh logins (which are quite
secure) to my server, and then tunnel over ssh for all access to your
LAN or the internet.

I haven't done this, however.  I am so old fashoioned that I still
think it is cool to have ethernet wires stashed in various corners of
the house.


-kb, the Kent who has played some with ssh for tunneling into his
server, but not for tunneling in and and then back out to the
internet.
-
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