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Originally Posted by Botnst
What do you think of wireless networks for home? we're not allowed to use wireless to access our LAN at work, no matter what kind of password protection we claim. Why is that? Should this affect my home network?
Bot
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For what it's worth we're not allowed wireless networks at work either. Security folks claim that they are too easily broken and information is easily obtainable. In the past a few departments have secretly put them in so that they could use laptops in various buildings. They were sniffed out with wi-fi detectors and shut down.
As for home, we run a wi-fi network that hooks into 3 desktops and 2 laptops. Our network uses both WEP and WPA. WEP stands for wired equivalent protocol and is supposed to equal the security that you would have using ethernet cables to connect your computers. WPA is newer and supposedly more secure, I don't remember what it stands for. Basically the security consists of encrypted communication between the computer and the wireless router. You still have the same security issues at the router (such as open ports and the like) that you would have without the wi-fi. I'm pretty happy with our wi-fi network since I can go anywhere in the house or yards with the laptop and still be connected to the net.
Our neighbors on either side and up the street also have wireless networks that they don't secure. I can get into them and surf the net any time I like. I'm sure if I wanted to I could snoop into the info that they send back and forth. I've told them that the networks are open but it's not a big concern for them. Works out great for me because I hop onto thier network when our connection goes down as it periodically does (yay, Verizon). I've told them all what I do and none of them have issues with it. It's all personal preference evidently...