Even though WEP is bad, and I advise people to use WPA, at least the tools required to break WEP are more complex and the time required is greater than those required to spoof a MAC address.
Yes. It jumps to less than 15 minutes from 5 minutes. It is less than a minute to crack the MAC. There are free, downloadable CDs full of tools to do this, and you really don't need to know much about it.
I was horrifeid last year when an automaker was talking about using wireless to control different parts of a vehicle. They specifically mentioned brakes...
rlstjohn Vonage Forum Master
Joined: Jan 27, 2005 Posts: 218
Location: Maryland
Everything you transmit can easily be seen in the clear. Anyone who wishes to access your access point can simply snoop to find out what MAC address you are using and then use the same MAC address.
This is very true. But then again, someone could easily put a sniffer on the other side of their cable modem and pick up traffic on their local node. It all comes down to the level of risk one is willing to accept.
WEP has three settings: Off (no security), 64-bit (weak security), 128-bit (a bit better security). WEP is not difficult to crack, and using it reduces performance slightly.
If you run a network with only the default security, where WEP is turned off, any of your neighbors can immediately log on to your network and use your Internet connection.
* For wireless devices to communicate, all of them must use the same WEP setting. (40-bit and 64-bit WEP encryption are the same thing — 40-bit devices can communicate with 64-bit devices.)
While there is no extra performance cost to encrypting the longer key, [there is a cost to transmitting the extra data over the network. 128-bit security is not much more difficult than 64-bit to crack, so if you are concerned about performance, consider using 64-bit. If you're very concerned about security, use WPA, which replaces WEP with a protocol that is — given current technology — impossible to crack.
emphasis mine
Nobody would use encryption if it meant a 65+% degradation.
This test of WEP on 802.11a equipment showed an average 5% performance impact. This is not directly applicable to 802.11b but should demonstrate the order of magnitude.
I would guess a problem with your router (or your computer?)
_________________ Stephen P. Cerruti (ISP: TWC)
EzCo Vonage Forum Evangelist
Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Posts: 533
Location: Southeastern PA
I use WPA encryption with my D-Link WBR-2310 and see no loss in speed (up or down) on my wireless connection. I use a D-Link WDA - 2320 wireless card.
I initially had a linksys WRT54G router and got about 50% of my download speed and about 80% of my upload. Not good enough for me, since I pay extra for additional bandwidth.
It's a Netgear WG111T that I got from Dell with my new PC (it's a USB plugin doohickey). The setup utility says I have a consistent 36 or 48 Mbps connection to the router.
BTW -- the performance cut is identical on three different machines. This one with the Netgear, another one with a Linksys PCI card, and a laptop with Centrino running 802a. Also, all three machines get the full 5Mbps advertised speed when hooked directly to the modem or plugged into the router with cable.
Finally -- I disabled WEP and tested again. The speed cut is indisinguishable.
The problem is clearly the wireless part of the router.
EzCo Vonage Forum Evangelist
Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Posts: 533
Location: Southeastern PA
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