Wireless broad band questions

[String]

Originally Posted by MattS

No you never had to. That is just what they told you to make their support department's job easier and possibly to encourage you to think you were tied into them. AOL make similar claims, but it is known in the trade as bollox (technical term).

Although it would appear Sky are trialling MAC locking to enforce the use of their routers in some areas with some people currently.

[MattS]

Originally Posted by String

Although it would appear Sky are trialling MAC locking to enforce the use of their routers in some areas with some people currently.

So spoof the MAC. Plenty of routers can do that. It used to be essential on some cables.

[big_si]

Originally Posted by MattS

Hmmm. WEP and MAC filtering are really past their sell by dates.

WEP takes a little over 3minutes to crack. MAC filtering about 6 minutes. It does not take a great deal of expertise and special equipment. Just a laptop and the right tools which are freely available on the internet.

WPA is not perfect but it is a whole lot better than what came before. To crack WPA requires a lot of time, a lot of expertise and a lot of processing power. That is usually enough to put off the casual cracker from looking at what you are up to on the internet.

That's interesting. Perhaps I should have a look at mine then! I've not really changed my network set up over the last 6 or so years I've had a wireless at home. Sounds like it's now woefully inadequate!

[String]

Originally Posted by MattS

So spoof the MAC. Plenty of routers can do that. It used to be essential on some cables.

Easy enough if you have a linux box or router capable of spoofing the MAC.

Lots (Most?) off the shelf consumer routers though don't have the facility to spoof the mac address.

[MattS]

Originally Posted by String

Lots (Most?) off the shelf consumer routers though don't have the facility to spoof the mac address.

I wouldn't like to say 'most' because of the 100s of different makes and models in the domestic market space. Lots, however, do let you spoof the mac and many are running Linux below the GUI and CLI. Also it is a requirement for connection to some European broad band services. It is quite a while since I came across a router that could not easily be set to spoof it's mac, and even some of those could but needed persuading with a CLI command.

[String]

I've come across very few. Most people tend to buy stuff like netgear, BT,zyxeld and so on which won't do it. Some of the common routers around now don't have a CLI at all.


So unless you know what you're looking for and buying there is a chance it won't work on sky if they do implement mac locking nationwide. Especially as 99% of users just buy, plug in and use and have no knowledge or even want to know about the underlying OS of the router etc.

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by MattS

I wouldn't like to say 'most' because of the 100s of different makes and models in the domestic market space. Lots, however, do let you spoof the mac and many are running Linux below the GUI and CLI. Also it is a requirement for connection to some European broad band services. It is quite a while since I came across a router that could not easily be set to spoof it's mac, and even some of those could but needed persuading with a CLI command.

My Belkin is able to spoof as thats what the belkin tech support got me to do to connect to NTL set top box modem.

[Noel Johnson]

Thank you chaps.

I have more problems though... I now have a spangly new laptop and a belkin wireless router. It will allow me to connect to t'internet only when I have a LAN cable between the modem/router and the new laptop. As I only have one computer in the house this sort of negates the portable wireless aspect of it all.

When I disconnect the network cable, it says it can log onto the network router, but not the internet - what's happening?.

Cheers all and greens all round when I get it resolved,

Noel.

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by Noel Johnson

Thank you chaps.

I have more problems though... I now have a spangly new laptop and a belkin wireless router. It will allow me to connect to t'internet only when I have a LAN cable between the modem/router and the new laptop. As I only have one computer in the house this sort of negates the portable wireless aspect of it all.

When I disconnect the network cable, it says it can log onto the network router, but not the internet - what's happening?.

Cheers all and greens all round when I get it resolved,

Noel.

call the free technical support line for Belkin thats what I did when I had similar problems

[Noel Johnson]

YAY Sussed it...

Numpty boy here had the router set to WEP. Looks like the new HP laptop only does WPA. Swapped them over and it seems to be working.

Thanks for the encryption tips.

Noel

Added: As promised greens are in.