wifi security/hacking?

so my wifi has been acting weird and i've been watching too many videos online that have me paranoid about wifi security because apparantly just a password isnt safe anymore.

i want to see if i can crack my own wifi password to test it out, but every program i google seems like a scam and has bad reviews. i don't mind doing brute force because i have a strong computer. and this is for my own purposes as a test, i live in the middle of nowhere and have the fastest internet out of my few neighbors by far, so i could care less about their wifi and how far out of range they are.

do you guys know any good programs? i saw something called reaver but it requires booting off a dvd and a bunch of complicated stuff.

thanks

 

I'm afraid we can't go this route. We can talk about settings that would improve your security but forum rules explicitly prohibit discussing what you're asking.

Make sure you use WPA2 with AES and that you have a random and long password. Do not use WPS and change your routers administrative password. That's pretty much as good as it gets.

 

Would a VPN help or is that for individual computers? Or any programs or settings to see which devices have connected to my router?

 

I'm afraid the router is the only place where you can get full info - more specifically list of DHCP leases would show all wired and wireless devices that are connected (or were connected if the DHCP lease still lasts).

As for VPN - it's a good service to have if you are concerned about privacy or you travel a lot and are concerned about security but I don't think it would be useful in this particular case - it does not make your Wi-Fi more secure.

 

Ok thanks!

 

1. Better password with wpa2
2. Turn down the WiFi power


Sent from my 306SH

 

Might also turn off ssid broadcast. Your wifi will be hidden (to most devices) and aside from the password you'd need to know its ssid. Even more radical; disable dhcp and permit access manually by whitelisting mac addresses. Not very kind to guests, of course.

 

Unfortunately, hidden SSID, MAC filtering, disabling dhcp services has very little to no effect against a persistent attacker even for the inexperienced.
It only delay a few minutes in active and negligible in passive.

 

True enough, but the OP didn't mention the NSA were after him .

The 'weird issues' might also simply be due to a new router/ap in the neighbourhood. Could check traffic intensity at the various channels and/or change current channel.

 

Be extra careful what you click on and sites you visit

And as already said

use long passwords randomly generated that contains upper and lower case letters,numbers,special symbols and punctuation marks

Cyberx is a good generator for passwords 1-1028 in length