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How easy is WEP to crack?

flameboy

By flameboy
in General Chit Chat

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flameboy Newbie

flameboy

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Let me explain, I have a wireless BT Home Hub which uses a preset WEP that comes on the back of it.

 

Recently we have had to pay charges for going over our download limit, but by like 80 gigabits, now I know for sure that there is no way we have downloaded that much stuff.

 

So is it possible somebody is using our connect? I mean I live in a student area so there are tons of fellow students with houses and people who will use any method to get free internet!

 

Just got me wondering....

Emasher Newbie

Emasher

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Posted

well if your going on websites with lots of images or streaming lots of videos you could have actually reached that

 

and i mean lots

 

though wep isn't as secure as wpa it is still pretty secure and you would actually need to spend an awful lot of time trying to hack it.

flameboy Newbie

flameboy

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well if your going on websites with lots of images or streaming lots of videos you could have actually reached that

 

and i mean lots

 

though wep isn't as secure as wpa it is still pretty secure and you would actually need to spend an awful lot of time trying to hack it.

 

yeah you see thats what my dad said it could be but I'm not convinced I doubt it can be that much, thats a hell of a lot of pics!!!

 

anyway cheers for other info guys, I may give BT a ring...

McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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Does the BT Home Hub keep logs? I know on my router i can get a print-out of what ip addresses were connected when, that might solve you're query.

Oh, and upgrade to WPA or WPA-PSK. Its much more secure and oretty much garauntees that no students are stealing you're bandwidth

Twozzok Newbie

Twozzok

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WEP is extremely unsecure,. Even the 128-bit encryption takes a couple of minutes to crack. If you're totally sure you haven't used it yourself by accident (which is entirely possible, apparently I downloaded 90gb last month :/) then get a router with WPA.

flameboy Newbie

flameboy

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can't afford a new router really and the BT Home Hub comes preset with its WEP built in. I've checked the IP log, and it doesn't have any individual logs all the same number, remember actually trying to log onto online poker with my housemate and it said somebody was already logged in using that IP address....i'e him on his computer and it wudnt let me in.

Shino Newbie

Shino

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can't afford a new router really and the BT Home Hub comes preset with its WEP built in. I've checked the IP log, and it doesn't have any individual logs all the same number, remember actually trying to log onto online poker with my housemate and it said somebody was already logged in using that IP address....i'e him on his computer and it wudnt let me in.

 

Check if your router has Mac filtering, if so, set it to allow connection of your PC's only.

Emasher Newbie

Emasher

Posted
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yeah you see thats what my dad said it could be but I'm not convinced I doubt it can be that much, thats a hell of a lot of pics!!!

 

anyway cheers for other info guys, I may give BT a ring...

 

well it does depend i guess wether any of your neighbours are proffesional hackers

Bogbas Newbie

Bogbas

Posted
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Check if your router has Mac filtering, if so, set it to allow connection of your PC's only.

 

Yes that's a step to the right direction. But the mac addresses can be spoofed so if someone did crack into the wireless network and knew more than to download a program to crack the wep, he could have checked what mac addresses the other computers that were connected to the router had.

 

WPA + mac filtering should be safe enough. But still I would recommend using cables if possible.

Link83 Newbie

Link83

Posted
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I have a Wireless router, but I only use it to connect to my Nintendo DS. I have WEP and MAC address filtering on (as you cant use WPA with the Nintendo DS)

How secure do you think my connection will be?

That Guy Newbie

That Guy

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Posted

My XBOX 360 wont work if I put WPA on, it tells me it needs a certain number of characters entered, and when I enter whats worked on all my other wireless devices it just wont connect.

Rummy Newbie

Rummy

Posted
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Apparently it IS super easy, and can be cracked within 10 minutes with off the shelf software due to a big flaw in it(which sort of allows the key to be reverse engineered quickly), and people can even intercept and monitor what you're sending over it. The guys on The Real Hustle (BBC3, exposes alot of common scams and cons) showed how they went round in a van until they found someone's house using it, then used their connection AND managed to even syphon off details about a holiday they were booking, which is a double score for criminals as it means they know when the house would be free to rob the place. I dunno if they could get credit card details too, but I shouldn't think that is easy to do given the extra protection on credit card sites.

I would suggest if you can, to get logs on the router of who's been connecting, also set up DHCP if you can which will assign specific mac addresses specific IP addresses, you may in theory be able to block out unauthorised connections as people have said, but it also means it'll be easier to check from your logs if another person has been connecting, as they'd get an IP assigned automatically, and it won't match the ones you've said.

 

As you said, there's plenty students about, and I would say they're more than likely to try leeching free internets. Badger BT about it and find out if and how you can get WPA protection, as I believe that doesn't have the flaw and is only brute force breakable.

McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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Nintendo really need a slap for not supporting WPA on DS. Its like asking people "would you like a secure network or online gaming?"

Rummy Newbie

Rummy

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My router and access point seem to support WPA but my DS and one PC doesn't. It's hard to find a decent PCI Wireless card with positive reviews that supports WPA currently.

 

Yeah, the DS thing is really really stupid, annoys me to no end, kind of glad the wii has WPA, but annoyed cos if I use the DS I switch it over to WEP, I have to change the Wii too. I wish it would automatically search for any of the 3 presets to connect to. I'll usually leave the router as WEP for a while(id forgot for a month or two and only changed back to WPA last night after reading this).

As for your PC not supporting it, I should have thought it would? I have a d-link PCI card that I had since like...june before last, and that supported WPA.

 

I know with WEP you can generate a key through a passphrase but how the heck are you supposed to create a key with WPA?

Just like with WEP, you should be able to do the same on WPA. You'll need to select WPA-PSK though, which stands for Pre-Shared Key.

Rummy Newbie

Rummy

Posted
Posted

do you mean it assigns the device you're using a different IP address each time or that your actual IP address seems to change alot?

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