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From: Jon Brown (no email)
Date: Mon Aug 01 2005 - 21:05:40 EDT
Took me a couple weeks to get to this thread, but to add to what Scott Meyer said...
There are different protection schemes for different links in the chain. There are exellent online resources to explain this stuff in much better detail than I will try to here, but I'll link to some of them... don't read all the links unless your techy, jsut read the articles at the end:
In short:
WEP (Wireed Equvalent Privacy, often mistakenly called Wireless Encryption Protocal) - is a weak level of encryption that helps prevent somone from easily listening in on the data going between your Laptop and the WiFi base station. Listening to this transmision is analgous to someone trying to eve's droping on a cordless phone call, WEP encrytion offers a slighely more difficult to listen in. Frankly however it's easy enough for someone who wants to defeat it to do so as to be somewhat pointless. If you can figure out how to eve's drop on the un-encrypted communications of a wireless network you certianly can also figure out how to eve's drop on the encrypted ones too.
If you have the time, read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy
don't panic, there is hope...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access
WPA (WiFi Protected Access) - Is a super strong encryption that replaced WEP and succesfully protects whatever is being transmitted between your laptop and the wireless access point your transmitting to. However, once the data gets to the wireless access point it is decrypted and sent out across the internet where in theory it again could be intercepted just like on a wired connection.
However, both of the above are really focus on securing the NETWORK your connecting to more than they are there to protect you. They will however protect your more mundane traffic, ie email, what your saying in that chat room, etc... For very private financial data there are other things to protect you, namely SSL...
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a encryption layer used to encrypt the data you enter into a web page as it makes it's way across the internet (between your computer and the website you are banking/shopping on). Virtually ALL financial web sites will use this, at least all the reputable ones, and they will use the one of the stronger varities of it. Virtually all web browsers released inthe last several years support this. If you were using a very old web browser on a very old computer you might run into a case where the web broswer only support 64 bit encryption whereas you bank/shop may require 64 bit or 128 bit encryption (higher is better).
If you have the time, read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS
&
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer
So, try to understand this. If you're doing your banking/shopping/etc... wirelessly, and you're connecting to a SSL secrued web-site then all the transmissions between your laptop and that bussniess are effectively secured REGARDLESS of WEP or WPA. This is actually a BETTER situation than using the internet cafe's computer, upon which all sorts of malicous key-stroke logging software could be running unbeknowest to you. So yes you are better off using your laptop wirelessly WITHOUT WEP, but on an SSL website, than you would be using thier hard wired computer.
So what you should be most worried about SSL, it is what's out there to protect your very private little bit of data between your keyboard and the recieving web-sites server. Therefore, be very sure BEFORE you type a username or password when using a wirelss conection in that you're on a SSL secured page. The web address will start with HTTPS instead of just HTTP, and and depending on your web browser a small icon of a locked pad-lock will appear in the lower right corner of the window (at least that's where it is for Internet Explorer)
Here's one last good article that is fairly easy to read:
http://www.ncasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=25651&catid=5&subcat=48
also for genreal WiFi info check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_cafe
-Jon
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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