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Keeping Airport Secure
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Under a Joshua Tree
Status:
Offline
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(It's hard coming up with a subject title that doesn't sound like it's about the war on terrorism, but anyway...)
I am looking at getting Airport for my iBook and Power Mac—neither has the card right now, nor do I have the "base station."
But I have some worries about the security of 802.11b. I live in a student apartment complex, so there are definitely a lot of other computer users who could be in range (not to mention the throngs of computers when I have my iBook on campus).
First of all, can you "turn off" your card when you don't want to be needlessly exposed to snooping/theiving/vandalism?
Second, is there any kind of affordable software out there that I could get to improve the security of my computers? Is this unnecessary? Is it secure enough already?
I'm not a great computer whiz; I just do a lot of editing, design work. So plain English answers would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN U.S.A.
Status:
Offline
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Yes, you can disable Airport functionality in your computer. You can also password protect the base station. There are also a number of firewall applications you can use to protect your machine. I use Norton Personal Firewall. Do some snooping and find the best solution for your circumstances.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jul 2001
Status:
Offline
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I believe that you can connect directly (ethernet) to your airport base station and tell it "only give and recieve information wirelessly if the otehr party uses THIS password." I've never done it, though - I love sububria.
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Actual conversation between UCLA and Stanford during a login on early Internet - U: I'm going to type an L! Did you get an L? S: I got one-one-four. L! U:Did you get the O? S: One-one-seven. U: <types G> S: The computer just crashed.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Status:
Offline
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In addition to using 128 bit WEP (encryption) which has proven breakable, you should do two more things:
1. Tell the base station to create a closed network. This means it doesn't advertise its existence to anyone.
2. Tell the base station to allow connections only to your particular airport card. This is done under the "Access Control" tab in the Airport Admin Utility.
Taken together, other users 1) won't know your airport network is there, and 2) even if they know it's there they won't be able to connect to it.
Chris
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canberra, Australia
Status:
Offline
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I agree with Chabig.
I connect to a wireless network in a student house in a high density housing area. We've turned advertising off and only allow our MAC addresses to connect to the Base Station. It's about as good as you can get.
I personally use Firewalk as my firewall. Very happy with it so far - especially seeing Brickhouse was letting everything through when it was't meant to!
Hugh
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