WEP vs WPA security - any thoughts?

Question

I have a Netgear router supplied by Sky for my broadband. It came configured with a WPA key.  I have changed the router security to a 128bit WEP key, so that my Nintendo DS can use the router for WiFi gaming.  I know WEP is supposed to be less secure than WPA but whats the risk? I have security on my PC (McAfee) hard wired to the router and on my laptop (Norton) which is wirelessly connected.

giraffe · Accepted Answer

WPA is definitely more secure than WEP. The WEP encryption isn't very strong under a known text attack.

Unfortunately ARP responses encrypted under WEP have the first N bytes known, and thus can be broken with a relatively small number (40,000) of messages.

Look at the discussion at:

http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-089.pdf

That being said, do you really care if someone hacks into your wireless? You should be using SSL for any important connections. I know that Sky cares, because having someone hack in means they are losing business. However, suppose someone saw your gaming data, would you care? The place where you might care is if hacking in meant they could see information you don't want them to, or if they used so much of your bandwidth that you couldn't do what you wanted.

junglejungle · Answer

WPA is better than WEP ..

the thing with the DS, if you wanna play it online you have to switch it back to WEP.. which is a con so nintendo get you to buy a usb dongle so it piggy backs off your others pc..

for that, i think they are lame. 

also a router with an inbuilt firewall is nice =)

if you play mario kart online, half of the players s*c* as they snake around the track, which shows no skill.

Anonymous · Answer

WEP secruity is very unsafe. It can easly be hacked and taken off but im not sure about WPA

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WEP vs WPA security - any thoughts?

3 Answers