router security

[Rashkae]

Robert Holtzman wrote:
> I'm running a Linksys wireless router with wpa encryption for my
> laptop and a desktop is hardwired into it. I'm wondering how
> secure the wired connection is in as much as wireless isn't
> involved. It seems as though the wired connection wouldn't be
> secure if the router got cracked. The router has a 64 hex character
> passphrase.
> 
> Anyone knowledgeable have any thoughts on this?
> 

Indeed, if someone takes the time and effort to crack your WPA, which is
possible (last I checked, Elcomsoft was selling software to do exactly
that,) the attacker would have free reign to snoop on your wired
connection, or otherwise try their hand at launching attacks against any
computer on your network, wired or wireless.  If you're that concerned
about it, you can install two NIC's on a computer and put wireless and
wired on their own Nic and subnet, and configure iptables so traffic
between those two interfaces is never allowed to cross (with the
exception of allowing traffic to the gateway, if that is located on one
of the two subnets.)  I've used exactly this configuration at a few
locations where they wanted to provide public or semi-public wireless
internet access while also allowing simple file sharing within the
office Lan.