[Techtalk] encrypting wavelan

[Diggy Bell]

Depending on the specifics of the 3Com access point, there should be a
configuration option for something called Wireless Encryption Protocol
(WEP.)  WEP is provided as part the 802.11 standard and provides for
encryption of data over the air.  But, having said that, WEP has been found
to be vulnerable to exploit.  I haven't reviewed the technical details of
the exploits, but suffice it to say that the general industry consensus is
that WEP is not suitable for some production environments where high
security is required.  But for your case, WEP would give you at least a
degree of protection from war drivers, et al.

On a more practical note, I attempted to setup WEP one time.  I was never
able to get it working properly, but the access point I was using wasn't one
that I had a lot of confidence in.  You might want to consider having a
Windows machine around for any utilities that are provided by 3Com just in
case.

William D. 'Diggy' Bell
Principal
DB Software Development
http://www.dbsoftdev.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rebecca J. Walter" <rjp at mail.tele.dk>
To: "techtalk" <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 12:07 PM
Subject: [Techtalk] encrypting wavelan


> I got myself a 3com wavelan base station and an apple wireless card for
> my iBook.  We live out in the middle of nowhere, so  it is probably
> safe, but to make sure we want to encrypt the connection.  I think this
> is supposed to be possible.  Unfortunately, neither my husband nor I
> have any clue how to go about doing this.  I think he knows how to make
> the base station do it, but what do I need to do to set up my laptop to
> work with this in Linux?  I am using the airport.o kernel module.  My
> distro is currently a SuSE PPC 8.1 preview.  My kernel appears to be a
> 2.4.16.
>
> Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.  If more
> information is needed, just tell me what you need to know about what.
> Also feel free to direct me to appropriate manuals.
>
> Thanks!
> bex
>
>
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