is WPA a lot better. I guess it is crackable but I haven't heard much about WPA implementation.

Anyway, my company's 802.11b solutions are uncrackable (at least not yet) and NSA certified.

 

I believe very few things are uncrackable (with the exception of quantum encryption). Todays encryption schemes may be outside the means of all but the largest governments to tackle, but it's really just a matter of resources (time and money) as well as willingness. It all boils down to "what are acceptable risks". Wireless can be made to meet the guideline of acceptable risk for most businesses and homes.

Off on a tangent, here's a small blurb on some of the technology behind Eschelon: http://www.anomalies.net/news/eschelon.html. If the government is willing to spend that sort of money on DSP modules for voiceprinting, what else do you think they spend money on with regards to encryption cracking? The US government has a long history of keeping world-changing technologies secret for years / decades.

 

I was under the impression that they're not exactly 802.11b, that's why it's able to be so secure

 

This should be like the first or second post, but will wireless slow down my connection? Last I checked, I was at I think 2.7 MBPS. I think that's it (cox super high speed). If I go wireless, will I slow down much? Thanks for the help.

 

Generally, no, but you have to keep in mind that it depends on how far you are from your access point (AP). The farther you get, the more your connection will throttle itself back. You should be able to tell by looking for the wireless icon in your system tray and then looking for the wireless status.

802.11b runs at a maximum of 11Mbps so it is faster than your 3Mbps connection. For reference, 802.11g runs at 54Mbps.

 

U.S. robotics is now up to 125Mbps

 

Tools to get around WEP and PPTP:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/04/12/21/0134230...tid=193&tid=218

Looks like it just takes a few seconds, eh?

Personally, I wonder why somebody hasn't implemented RSA public-key encryption to exchange proper 1024bit symmetric encryption keys - silicon is cheap these days and it shouldn't be much of a performance hit. And for the really paranoid, you can change keys every 10MB of data transferred or something. Would that be effective?