Comments on: Which wireless encryption to choose

By: Richard Sobchinsky

Richard Sobchinsky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:24:46 +0000

Hey, this is good stuff. I had to look at what my router offered and I’m going to us WPA2-AES for sure.
Thank you,
rich

By: dj.si (London, UK)

dj.si (London, UK) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:17:34 +0000

Though my Zyxel router has wireless capability, I’d never seen the need to use it …until recently. But before enabling it I wanted to find out how to be sure that it would be secure, since I’d heard about WEP, WPA and WPA2 but hadn’t previously had the need to understand them. This was one of the first articles Google found, and I must say it’s been very helpful – it’s concise, and clearly explains the 3 options. Thank you!

For anyone who may be interested, my home wireless network is now operational with the most secure WPA2-PSK/AES, using a Zyxel Prestige 660HW-61 router and a Zyxel G-162 CardBus wireless card in my laptop, having downloaded (from Zyxel support) and installed P-660HW-61_3.40(PE.11)C0.zip and G-162_V3.0.1_Windows98SE_WindowsME_Windows2000_WindowsXP__Standard.zip respectively.

By: Rimsky

Rimsky — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:28:14 +0000

Further to my last message, I downloaded the latest Realtek driver and UI (I thought I already had) and now it works ok – definitely in WPA mode!

By: Rimsky

Rimsky — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:45:54 +0000

Yes, I’m sure WPA was enabled on the router. I’ve had a scout around forums and some other people seem to be able to use WPA with with the 8180 chipsets, eg. http://www.realgeek.com/forums/cant-connect-wireless-network-4102.html.

By: Techie

Techie — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:33:08 +0000

Rimsky: are you sure you were using WPA before? Realtek 8180 chipsets appear to only support WEP.

By: Rimsky

Rimsky — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:20:59 +0000

Referring to oldguy’s message, I also have a Realtek 8180 PCMCIA card. I use WPA-PSK via a Netgear DG834G router and, until recently, it worked fine. Then I decided to rebuild the old laptop which uses the wireless card and now I can’t connect when WPA is turned on. Without encryption it works fine. I have downloaded the latest drivers but with no luck. In fact, Realtek’s wireless management software doesn’t even include a WPA option.

This is very odd as it definitely worked pre rebuild.

Any ideas anyone?

By: Barbara Engel

Barbara Engel — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:04:42 +0000

I’m a wireless novice. How do I know if my computer has WPA2-AES capabilities?

By: oldguy

oldguy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:46:23 +0000

Hi,
I agree with the comments. But, the PCMCIA adaptor I use (Realtek 8180 on a Thinkpad A21m), even with the latest driver, doesn’t support WPA, so I am stuck sending out a WEP signal (at home). So, to minimize my risk, I use MAC filtering (my router needs the MAC address of the devices connecting to it), and I have set all the denial of service items I found on my router (a Gigafast WF-719 CAPR). I also set the power output of the signal to the lowest level that still allows me to connect to the router wherever I need it. This allows me to use the old laptop around the house, and my kids can connect their Wii to the net. So far so good and it beats buying a new PCMCIA adaptor for an old laptop.

By: Oscar

Oscar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:36:46 +0000

Since PSK is mentioned, it should also be mentioned that weak PSK:s are susceptible to dictionary attacks.

If you really want a secure wi-fi network with PSK authentication, you need to use a PSK of at least 12 characters, preferably 20 characters or more. Also don’t use any words that might be found in word lists (or combinations of such words).

By: stormy

stormy — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:39:59 +0000

thanks so much for d info.. straight 2 the point n easily understood… keep up good work.. finally got my WiFI secured with the max security available.. WPA2-PSK.. danke very much..