About MAC addresses

Hi, a quick question: If I set up the wireless router to filter MAC addresses, does this mean that I don't have to use WEP or any other encryption to secure my device? ie. will my internet be secure enough just using MAC filtering?

It's just that I've heard that using encryption slows down your network and I really want to make my wireless internet as fast as possible.

But at the same time i don't want the neighbours from stealing our internet slowing it down too!

Thanks for any advice!

 

MAC filtering is a good level of security - but not a vault by any means. Someone who is determined to get in can easily spoof MAC addresses. So it al depends on your level of comfort and the liklehood of someone trying to hack in. There are so many unsecured SSID's out there the hacker or wardriver is likely to ignore a network with some level of security.

WPA/WPA2 are much more secure than WEP and also have much less overhead. Might want to give that a try assuming you router and wireless cards support it.

 

are there ways to spoof a MAC address without knowing one of the allowed ones in advance?

 

Yes, there is a way through the air. The only good protection is WPA and TKip.

 

I don't know if all routers are like this, but I know my router will only enable a MAC filter in conjunction with a WEP. I can do a WEP without a MAC filter, but not the other way around for some reaosn.

 

Disabling SSID Broadcasts is a great thing to have. As people need your network name(SSID) to access it.

 

No, but there are packet sniffing devices that can catch packets travelling through the air, and read the relevant information (SSID, MAC addresses) off them. Thus, SSID no-broadcast and MAC filtering is good protection against casual WiFi leachers (good enough 99% or more of the time), but not against someone determined to hack into your network.

WPA is rather good. I've been told that WPA+AES gives very little overhead. In any case, you shouldn't feel any slowdowns in internet usage - broadband speeds are too slow to stress the WiFi bandwidth, even with encryption.