<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Sandy Harris <<a href="mailto:sandyinchina@gmail.com">sandyinchina@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Zachary Uram<<a href="mailto:netrek@gmail.com">netrek@gmail.com</a>> 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: <a href="http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html" target="_blank">http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html</a> <a href="http://eprint.iacr.org/2007/120" target="_blank">http://eprint.iacr.org/2007/120</a> 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. </blockquote><div> Your correct about WEP being insecure. However, it is better than no security. And the alternative to WEP would be security modes WPA-PSK (or WPA Personal) and WPA-Enterprise. Thanks. Raseel </div></div>