Wireless network without encryption?

[rudeboymcc]

hi. i have two pc's, an old crappy one with 98SE and a new one with xppro. the xppro is connected to adsl. i'm trying to get the 98SE one wirelessly metworked with the xppro.

the problem is that the 98SE pc doesn't like encryption. whenever i enable it, whatever key i put it says READY but the bars below showing signal strength and link quality are on 0. as soon as i disable encryption on both pc's the connection is fine and the interenet works on both.

can i leave it like this? if i don't share any drives on either computer can someone come and go through my files if they connect to my wireless network?

if someone has any idea why the WEP key doesn't work with the 98SE pc please tell me.

[unmei]

as long as your PC connected to the internet is well protected (firewall), there is no danger for the local network, regardless what you share and allow inside.

If noone can break through the firewall (enter the LAN), you're safe from the internet. To secure the LAN with passwords and/or encryption then is only to protect you from someone approaching you physically with a laptop to login directly to your WLAN, without going over the internet, but for your average home network, there is generally no great desire to break in, so a simple password protection should be enough to prevent accidental break-ins.

IMHO a well configured firewall is important, then everything behind it can be viewed quite relaxed.
However i'm not experienced in this area, it's theory and other people might have contraty experience, then you rather ask them what to do :). I still use wired LAN and will continue like this at least until i have to own a laptop.

[Doom9]

well.. you have an interest to use some basic security on your network.. otherwise anyone with an antenna that gets close enough to your AP to pick up a signal can login to your network and do whatever he pleases. Imagine somebody using your internet access to hack a bank.. then you're liable as well. The least you should do is configure the access point to not broadcast an SSID and to only allow clients that are in your MAC address whitelist.

[rudeboymcc]

sorry i forgot to mention that there's no access point. it's just a peer-to-peer network.

@unmei, "a simple password protection will be enough". what do you mean? is there a password i can use other than encryption?

@Doom9, can i get the wireless adaptors to not broadcast the SSID?

say if my two pc's are connnected peer-to-peer, can anyone else connect to the network? i thought only two pc's could use an ad-hoc network at the same time. am i wrong?

[Doom9]

I feared that.. in an ad-hoc network there's no proper access control. A long cable and a NIC would definitely be a safer option.

[unmei]

@unmei, "a simple password protection will be enough". what do you mean? is there a password i can use other than encryption?


i meant specifying a password to login to the computer and/or passwords to access a shared drive (at least for writing!).

Maybe i understood you wrong at the very beginning, but i understood "ecryption" as "encrypt data when sent over the network" like if you request a file from the other comp, it get (PC1)encryped->sent->(PC2)decrypted ...but now i feel this is probably not what you meant :p

[rudeboymcc]

no you thought right. when i say encryption i mean of data being sent from one pc to the other.

i know how to set up passwords to go into a shared folder or drive, but how do you do that to login to the computer? is it under the wireless network settings or would it be something to do with sharing and security?