Securing my wireless network

[kturcotte]

I recently purchased a wireless router (My first), the Netgear
WNDR3700. I've turned on WPA2 encryption, which works fine on MOST
devices, but discovered a problem. My Nintendo 3DS supports WPA2, but
DS games only support WEP, even on the 3DS. Nintendo's solution is to
turn off WPA2 and turn on WEP, which is pretty much pointless. I want
my network to be as secure as possible, but I also want my DS games to
be able to access it. What can I do?

 

[stevech]

Opinion: WEP 128 is good enough for a consumer unless you live in the dorm of a university. Yes it can be hacked by someone in your driveway with the motivation. It's more secure than your financial files in the file cabinet that can easily be stolen. Or personal data on your computers that isn't encrypted on disk. Break-in theft and burglary, to me, are far more likely due to motive.

Among alternatives are:
Leave your WiFi alone. Buy a HomePlug pair, fairly inexpensive. Use these to connect the game device using ethernet from the game console to a nearby wall power outlet w/HomePlug.

And

Get a different router: one that supports two SSIDs: one for your PCs as now, and another SSID with WEP128 for the game consoles, and that SSID is managed by the router to send traffic ONLY to the Internet. So anyone that does get into the WEP128 cannot get at your PCs.

 

[GregN]

Use the WNDR3700's Guest Wireless with WEP

 

[kturcotte]

Use the WNDR3700's Guest Wireless with WEP

If I setup a guest network, won't that allow ANYBODY to access my internet connection? I want it locked right down so ONLY authorized computers/devices can access it.

 

[GregN]

If I setup a guest network, won't that allow ANYBODY to access my internet connection? I want it locked right down so ONLY authorized computers/devices can access it.

Like Steve said, only if they are willing to hack WEP, and if they do, at least they won't have access to your internal network. They can only steal bandwidth not data.

You can also turn off the guest SSID announce, which means anyone hacking it would have to know your SSID, they wouldn't see it on a standard scan.

Also not using DHCP, and using a non-standard set of IPs can make it more difficult.

Security is a trade off between convenience and confidence.

 

[claykin]

Make sure to also set the following two options in the WNDR3700 Guest network settings

Uncheck "Allow Guest to access my Local Network"
Check "Enable Wireless Isolation"

As GregN said, all a rogue would be able to do is use your Wifi for Internet access.