Wireless router and network card advice

[Burky]

A while ago I was talking about getting a wireless network. Well now I'm getting round to buying it.

 

The router I think should be fine as it was recommended in another thread.

However I have less confidence in the network card.

Router (Dlink)

3xNetwork card (generic)

Please suggest any improvements to my list.

Also if anyone knows any better site to buy off than ebuyer.co.uk could you tell me?

 

Thanks, Burky.

[centy]

Hello burky, I remember posting suggestions in the other thread.

 

The router looks good You have the link labeled as (Dlink) but when I click the link it takes me to a page with the Linksys WRT54G we where talking about.

Best router you are going to get at that price, incredible value if you ask me. Nice choice.

 

The wireless card looks a bit.. cheap, but I don't doubt it does the job just fine. Is there a website you can get info from about it should you encounter problems with it though?

This would be one of the deciding factors for me.

It should be fine though if the network adapter works as expected.

 

Steve gibson of www.grc.com fame (the dude who coined the phrase "spyware") has a series of podcasts that deal with security. A few are dedicated to securing your wireless network, really quite helpfull.

 

The ones that are relevant are

 

Open Wireless Access Points

Leo and I examine the security and privacy considerations of using non-encrypted (i.e. 'Open') wireless access points at home and in public locations. We discuss the various ways of protecting privacy when untrusted strangers can 'sniff' the data traffic flowing to and from your online PC.

Download

 

Bad WiFi Security (WEP and MAC address filtering)

Leo and I answer some questions arising from last week's episode, then plow into a detailed discussion of the lack of security value of MAC address filtering, the futility of disabling SSID's for security, and the extremely poor security offered by the first-generation WEP encryption system.

Download

 

Unbreakable WiFi Security

Leo and I follow-up on last week's discussion of the Sony Rootkit debacle with the distressing news of "phoning home" (spyware) behavior from the Sony DRM software, and the rootkit's exploitation by a new malicious backdoor Trojan. We then return to complete our discussion of WiFi security, demystifying the many confusing flavors of WPA encryption and presenting several critical MUST DO tips for WPA users.

Download

 

Public Key Cryptography

Having discussed symmetric (private) key ciphers during the last two weeks, this week Leo and I examine asymmetric key cryptography, commonly known as "Public Key Cryptography". We begin by examining the first public key cryptosystem, known as the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange, invented in 1976. Then we describe the operation of general purpose public key cryptosystems such as the one invented by RSA.

Download

 

There's about 50 others relating to security in general, but the wireless ones are really good for a getting an idea of the things you need to do to become secure.

 

http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

 

Hope this helps.

[Burky]

Thanks for the quick response.

I did mean Linksys; it was the same model as was posted in the other thread.

I chose that network card as it was the only one under 20 pounds which had a good review on ebuyer.co.uk, although I did see some people had problems with it.

The card is ebuyer's own product, so I'm sure I can get some advice from them, or at worst return it if necessary.

I'll go through those links when I get round to setting it up, thanks for your help.

[WintersFury]

I just got myself some ZyXEL wireless gear and have to say that I'm extremely pleased with it. Tomshardware likes the stuff and in the states theres a great deal on them at a national retailer currently. I happened to get the MIMO stuff, but if the quality of it is any indication of their other lower cost b/g products I would say to look into it.