Securing Wireless Networks

Securing Wireless Networks

When using wireless networks to connect computers together you need to

secure those networks from unauthorized access is becoming more

important. The most common way to secure a network is by using a type of

encryption. Another common, but less effective, method is to use Mac Address

filtering.

Encryption is one of the best methods available to secure a wireless

network. It uses a key to encrypt and decrypt traffic between the device and

the access point. This means that anyone with the key will be able to connect

to that network. The downside to encryption is that if the key isn’t strong

enough, someone might be able to decipher the key. Using WEP encryption,

this is the oldest security option. It can be done in a matter of minutes, or

even seconds. For this reason, WPA2 is currently the Recommended for of

encryption for wireless networks. It is a stronger encryption, which is much

more difficult to break.

Another form of securing a network is MAC address filtering. A MAC address

is a unique identifier that encoded on every NIC created. In theory, no 2 NIC

adapters should have the same MAC address. The way MAC address filtering

works