I'm starting to dewire my home lan, as I've just finished installing RH 9.0 on an older compaq Armada. The laptop runs great, and works fine with a Netgear 411 (I think) pcmcia nic. I've searched around, and seen some posts on wireless nics in general, but nothing specific on wireless pcmcia. Is/are there any specific recommendations or cards I should avoid?
Thanks.
You might stay away from any non-Prism2(.5) chipset cards. Also CARDBUS isn't always that compatible.
Go here for a list of supported 802.11g cards for the driver on that page. There are some various sites to show 802.11a and 802.11b cards that are also compatible.
Thanks for the reply.
I've found a page that shows cards, drivers, and compatibility. When I get a card working, I'll post the results here.
Just wanted to post my results.
I got the Netgear MA401 wireless nic working like a charm. My home lan is running off of a Netgear ME102. All I have to do is figure out how to get to the WAP to configure security.
Otherwise, the combination is working perfectly.
I would even bother with setting WEP keys unless your WAP has the ability to turn off broadcasting. With WEP security, the WAP broadcasts and identifies itself with any recieving AP. Along with that, it sends parts of the WEP key along with those broadcasts which can be collected and then cracked for forced entry to your wireless network. If not, setup a IPsec tunnel for your wireless connections. This of course isn't a problem with any 802.11g networks with 802.11i enabled. At least it's not a problem yet.
[quote author=Master Copy link=board=4;threadid=8403;start=0#msg78352 date=1076537372]
I would even bother with setting WEP keys unless your WAP has the ability to turn off broadcasting. With WEP security, the WAP broadcasts and identifies itself with any recieving AP. Along with that, it sends parts of the WEP key along with those broadcasts which can be collected and then cracked for forced entry to your wireless network. If not, setup a IPsec tunnel for your wireless connections. This of course isn't a problem with any 802.11g networks with 802.11i enabled. At least it's not a problem yet.
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Cracking WEP takes a while though, with a ping -f over the network it took me 3 days to crack my own (128 bit ..er, 104 bit encryption) With less traffic, it takes considerably longer. So, WEP will keep out the guy parking in front of your house to steal internet and hack. It won't keep out a determined neighbor within range though. Obviously tunneling is more secure, but the alternative is to just treat your LAN as if it was part of the internet. I don't use telnet to my servers because on the internet anyone can see that if they sniff it. I wouldn't use telnet on the LAN for the same reason, even with WEP. Certainly the 5 minutes it takes to setup WEP does offer some protection, from war drivers. Just not invincible protection.
Yes. It can take awhile on a strong key. I've grabbed on average 120 packets with dwepdump, and cracked them within a 12 hour time (On a 2GHz system). Just pointing out that is really is a threat.Cracking WEP takes a while though, with a ping -f over the network it took me 3 days to crack my own (128 bit ..er, 104 bit encryption) With less traffic, it takes considerably longer. So, WEP will keep out the guy parking in front of your house to steal internet and hack. It won't keep out a determined neighbor within range though. Obviously tunneling is more secure, but the alternative is to just treat your LAN as if it was part of the internet. I don't use telnet to my servers because on the internet anyone can see that if they sniff it. I wouldn't use telnet on the LAN for the same reason, even with WEP. Certainly the 5 minutes it takes to setup WEP does offer some protection, from war drivers. Just not invincible protection.
I would actually laugh if someone parked out front to steal my network. ;D
Not that I live in some uber-rich neighborhood, or anything remotely close. But someone would be driving way out of their way to get that access. Nevermind they would have to deal with my dogs. ;D ;D ;D
And my neighbors are not technologically savvy. Most of them don't even use the internet. I wouldn't even have a problem if they wanted to....
But since I enjoy IT security, I'm a little anal when it comes to securing my network. Right now, I turn the WAP off when I'm not using it. However, I think I'm going to enable MAC address checking, and just allow the MAC addresses from known machines.
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