[HLUG] emails not working

[Mark Broadbent]

Hi Paul,

On 15/02/2008, Paul Stenning <paul at vintage-radio.com> wrote:
> Yes, that would be interesting.
>
>  I think we have all heard of WEP and WPK, and know that WPK is the more
>  secure, but probably don't know why or indeed how it all works.
>
>  As an aside I helped a neighbour set up his BT Broadband yesterday.  It
>  didn't need much help though.  He had received a router and cordless
>  phone combo unit from BT which was preconfigured for his ADSL connection
>  and just worked when plugged in.  Wireless was enabled, with WEP
>  security enabled and the 10 character key printed on a label on the unit
>  (together with the unique wireless ID).  All I had to do was select the
>  right wireless network and enter the key in Windows, and it all worked.
>
>  I was impressed with how well they had done that compared to most
>  routers which default to wireless security disabled and generic network
>  names.  A bit of thought and effort has made it customer-proof and
>  secure.  I hate to praise BT, but this time it is due.

I agree, all wireless equipment should come pre-secured.  However WEP
security is effectively useless, it can take as little as 2 minutes to
break into with freely available tools.  I think they should have
bitten the bullet and gone with WPA (even just the TKIP version would
have sufficed).  We all know that most users won't change the default
settings on their equipment, so this could give an illusion of
security were there is none!

Thanks
Mark