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chumbawumba
Junior Member
United Kingdom
304 Posts |
 Posted - 25 May 2004 : 11:41:39
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I recently made a website for a company. They have now contacted me asking if I can set-up a small network for them.
This is their vital statistics:
Admin block – 4 Desktop PCs Win98
Accounts Office – 2 desktop PCs win98
4 x Classroom – 1 laptop in each win98
1 x manager office – 1 laptop win98
1 x manager office - 1 laptop win98
1 x CEO office – paper and pen
Currently only the accounts & admin girls have internet access, and they have a 56k dialup each. They chiefly use email, and some limited web-surfing. There is no existing network.
Ideally, what I would like is one ADSL line going into one main pc. Then, from there use a wi-fi network to share this internet connection with the rest of the PCs. This would suit their (low) network needs and save a lot of drilling, cabling and office reshuffling.
All they need is email & internet access each, and maybe a shared folder between the lot of them, and the ability to share printers.
Other than connecting a couple of PCs together at home, I have no experience in setting up a small office network, nor with wi-fi.
I thought this would be suitable for the PC with the direct connection:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=2PTK&searchphrase=officeconnect
And then a wi-fi card in each of the PCs that needs them , or a USB wifi device for the laptops.
Does any have experience with this ?
Is win 98 suitable for connection sharing ?
What OS would be best for the PC with the direct connection?
Is the wifi data secure from eavesdroppers ?
How to prevent someone piggy backing onto the network (i.e. a visitor arrives with his wifi enabled laptop).
I’d be grateful to receive advice.
(NB the email link in this forum doesn’t seem to be working)
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Nertz
Junior Member
Canada
341 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2004 : 12:20:49
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| Recommend you have a look at wireless SMC Barricade. Supports 128-bit wep encryption is very secure against unathorized wi-fi access. Plus, barricade will give you some basic firewalling to internet connection. |
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Doug G
Support Moderator
USA
6493 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 01:12:16
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I don't like wireless in business settings, maybe because my customers have a lot of metal around and connections can become interrupted as stuff moves around. Also I'm not totally convinced about the security of wifi yet. I just convinced one of my customers to run another cable vs. wireless. Unless the physical building is extremely difficult to work with I will use a wired network every time for a business.
WiFi or wired, I'd recommend you use a broadband router, and no PC will be directly connected to the DSL. The router gives you a built-in NAT firewall.
W98, while a pain to work with, does network reliably once it's set up. XP or W2K is quite superior though IMHO.
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Doug G
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Computer history and help at www.dougscode.com |
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proeder
Junior Member
Australia
230 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 04:52:05
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For a secure network environment you'll need at least Windows 2000 as mentioned before, as there is no built-in file security in win98.
With XP it is quit easy to setup a small workgroup with shared printer and internet access, even for unexperienced people. But bear in mind that you will probably have to upgrade all your hardware as win98 PCs will most likely not be suitable for running xp or w2k!
I agree that a broadband router would be the easiest and most secure solution to set up shared inet access and firewall protection.
But you'll definitely run into a lot of trouble and work if you're not experienced in these things, you will have a lot to read!
;-) |
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 05:50:40
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WiFi is definitely not secure, WEP is easily cracked (I think in some areas doing that is even a hobby). The combination of some manufacurer's hardware (Cisco, for example) and some server OSes can ensure that security. Another way to do it would be to setup a VPN, which would bring secure encription to the data being transfered.
That being the case, if security is a concern, I'd go for cable as well. |
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Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 06:10:45
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Indeed WEP can potentially be cracked in just a few hours. Generally speaking around 6-7GB of data is all thats required to be captured before the WEP keys are compromised, on a busy network this doesn't take long at all.
WPA on the other hand which most routers now support and any newer wifi should also support is considerably stronger than WEP, Windows XP support is also now available via a patch and I would expect a 2000 patch is available too though I'm not sure on the availability of it under Win98. |
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chumbawumba
Junior Member
United Kingdom
304 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 10:41:32
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Thanks for the useful information everybody. Very suprising that WEP is able to be cracked so easily.
Will do some extensive reading about networking before I start this ! |
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Panhandler
Average Member
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 11:17:44
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I beg to disagree based on some lurking I did in a hacker's forum yesterday (don't ask!).
There was a kid there that wanted to hack his schools system using WiFi.
A knowledgeable hacker explained to him that in a very busy wifi environment,
where data was being sent continuously, certain encryption codes would repeat over a period of hours.
Then, based on a very few keys,
one might then start to attempt to decode.
Reality Check:
Will your system be sending sensitive data continously over hours and hours?
Is your data worth someone's time to set up a listening post and record the data stream to capture repeated keys?
I'll see if I can find that hacking forum and give you a link to a really good explanation of how secure they are.
More later. . .
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 11:47:47
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If you search just a bit, you can even find code to do that. WEP's problems are known for quite a while. If you have some computer whiz kid next to such a network, and he has the willingness to do it, it won't take such an effort to actually break into the network.
Is it likely that will happen? Maybe not, but there is definitely the possibility. |
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Panhandler
Average Member
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 12:36:18
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quote:
Originally posted by chumbawumba
All they need is email & internet access each, and maybe a shared folder between the lot of them, and the ability to share printers.
Recommend this link for simple graphical help on setting up the network and equipment needed: http://www.linksys.com/edu/
I found win98 troublesome. The XP upgrade is definitely worth the price.
I think you already understand that WEP has limitations regarding security. Do you need Department of Defense level security?
See: http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-draft.pdf
for a college level explanation. It will help put the security issue in perspective.
Your clients needs were well described.
You need to discuss the security issue with them after you've educated yourself.
Let them decide.
It sounds like a lot of work if you're starting from scratch.
I hope these links help.
edit added:This Snitz forum is much more interesting - try this:
http://www.jinxhackwear.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5367
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Edited by - Panhandler on 26 May 2004 13:02:41 |
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chumbawumba
Junior Member
United Kingdom
304 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 15:33:59
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cheers panhandler, good links.
Interestingly, this company is located out on it's own. It is a training center located in the far east. To the south of them is a river, to the east & west is dense jungle and to the north is a 1.5km private road which connects them to the main road. Therefore I dont expect a problem of eavesdroppers from offices/people located next to them. (there are a few Iban tribesmen roaming about)
It would be good if all employees ran winXP but they are all on win98. Not exactly sure how old their pcs are but hopefully it is just a matter of adding more RAM.
plenty to learn.. |
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Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2004 : 06:22:10
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quote:
Originally posted by Panhandler
I beg to disagree based on some lurking I did in a hacker's forum yesterday (don't ask!).
There was a kid there that wanted to hack his schools system using WiFi.
A knowledgeable hacker explained to him that in a very busy wifi environment,
where data was being sent continuously, certain encryption codes would repeat over a period of hours.
Then, based on a very few keys,
one might then start to attempt to decode.
Reality Check:
Will your system be sending sensitive data continously over hours and hours?
Is your data worth someone's time to set up a listening post and record the data stream to capture repeated keys?
I'll see if I can find that hacking forum and give you a link to a really good explanation of how secure they are.
More later. . .
I can actually tell you from experience that on a busy network 5-6 hours was all that was required to compromise the WEP keys (it was a quite heavily saturated .G 54Mbs AP that we were auditing as part of a network scan).. On a home network which doesn't see anything more than a little web surfing etc the generally accepted "best practise" is to still change your WEP keys fairly often.
Airsnort is probably the most well known tool out there for doing (I'll let you find your own links so I can't be accused of promoting it ;))
An good primer article on the subject of WEP and WPA security can be read here
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=102230&seqNum=10 |
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