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I want to test wireless network for security

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6 replies

by nanoo

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Hey guys

I wanted to find out how secure my wireless home network really is. I figured the best way would be by trying to hack it and find any back doors or holes. My problem is I dont know how to go about doing it.
I am running a wireless Netgear G router. 2 stations are directly pluged into the router and 3 stations are wireless. I have a mixture of OS's 98, w2k and Xp home.

What would be some good ways to hack my network?

6 replies

by rob.lay

A couple of good tools to start with are Netstumbler and AirSnort. Netstumbler will tell you all the wireless networks around your area, the SSID's, channels and whether or not their encrypted. Then move onto Airsnort, this will attempt to crack your wep keys. The other question to ask is what have you done so far to secure you network??

by hawkeye255

Simply read your router's manual and do online research until you understand it then implement the level of security you would like to have. I don't think anyone here is going to tell you how to hack into wireless networks. That's for other sites that will most certainly try to hijack your computer and inundate you with viruses and spyware as a free bonus.

by tomsal

I'd have to agree with the other posts to this topic. Netstumbler is one of the new tools in my "toolkit" so to spake, since I only really had to start playing with wireless networks in the last year. However, the tool is very useful and works great!

As someone else suggest though, the first step is knowing your equipment -- its actually one of my favorite tecniques for network design and security planning purposes. If I'm not familiar with the equipment -- routers, switches, bridges, hubs, etc. I'll learn all I can about the hardware and features first before I do anything else.

Once you understand the gear then you move onto utilizing the features that are built into the gear for security and use them. After you do this stuff, then you worry about "hacking" your network, not before.

by martimus

I recommend checking out a PDA-based utility called WiFiFo. Once loaded on a PDA you can monitor to see if you can pick up your wireless network from outside your home. It also gives the ability to log into the network.

From a security standpoint, if you're running WEP consider your network insecure. It doesn't take much anymore to break into a WEP-based network. If you're paranoid about security think about implementing additional protocols like Cisco's LEAP, PEAP, or TTLS. There's a lot more involved in setting up one of these networks (and a TREMENDOUSLY higher cost).

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