wi-fi security?

[Sandy Harris]

Zachary Uram<netrek at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2) How do I make my laptop more secure so others on wifi network can't
> steal or sniff my packets?
>
> I heard many people using free wifi get heir passwords sniffed, etc.

The encryption built into the 802.11 WiFi standard is called WEP,
for "Wired Equivalent Privacy". Its design goal was ONLY to be
as secure as an unencrypted ethernet, where anyone who
can plug in can sniff your packets. That is of course an utterly
bone-headed design goal for a wireless system.

Moreover, they got it wrong and a whole series of attacks
that break WEP have been published. Examples:
http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html
http://eprint.iacr.org/2007/120

In short, WEP is broken. So if you actually want a secure
wireless network, you have to use some other protocol,
SSH or IPsec, to protect that connection.

-- 
Sandy Harris,
Fuzhou, Fujian, China