Re: Hardwire or wifi

On Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:25:50 -0800, Rich Johnson
<richj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

First, security...

Nobody cares about security until AFTER they have been hacked and have
lost money, time, effort, privacy, etc. I guess I'm no exception.
Last week, one my customers had an insider security breach. So, I'm
now working on encrypting all the key files (using TrueCrypt).

Wired could be more secure, if you know the network and where it goes
and are in control of who connects into it.

That's a big if. I've done better hacking wired connections than
wireless. Little if no wired traffic is encrypted. If I can connect
to the backhaul port, or setup a port for monitoring, I get
everything. A few filters, a capture file, and I walk away with the
grand prize.

Wireless is not so easy. Encryption is finally becoming popular.
Sniffing is amazingly difficult because you usually have to be able to
hear both sides of the exchange. If all you want to do is grab
logins, passwords, and session cookies, then one side is sufficient.
But if you want to capture everything in its original context, both
sides are necessary.

If it is a shared jack with
someone else in control of the Ethernet, no, it is not secure. If you
connect to the network be sure to have a firewall (and a good one)
enabled on your PCs or buy a hardware unit.

The someone else that's in control of the ethernet can capture all
your traffic. In a hotel/rental situation, you have to trust the
wireless network owner. Otherwise, you have to run all your traffic
through a VPN service provider to make sure the wireless network owner
doesn't capture your traffic.
<http://wireless.navas.us/wiki/Wi-Fi#VPN_Service_Providers>

Wireless if secured with WPA2 and a large mixed random character pass
phrase, can be secure, but again if you are not in control of the
network, forget about real security.

"Can be secure" is correct.
<http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-howto/30278-how-to-crack-wpa--wpa2>
Short and dumb pass phrases can be cracked by brute force.

Speed. Test both at the url below.
http://www.speedtest.net

Maybe. Most ISP's provide their own speed test servers. I would use
the one that's closest to your internet connection.

Speed testing for fairly slow connections are easy enough. Fast
connections, such as DOCSIS 3 cable connections at 15Mbits/sec and
faster fiber connections are not so easy. These almost demand that
you use the nearest speed test server. If you get unusually low
numbers, try a closer server.

Measuring the download speed using the internet also doesn't do
anything for benchmarking the local wireless and wired connections.
For that, you need to setup a local speed test server and use programs
such as IPerf, JPerf, NetStress, etc. Such tests will isolate
performance problems to the wired or wireless network, or the various
component devices, such as computers, router, switch, wiring, etc.
<http://www.performancewifi.net/performance-wifi/products/netstress-network-benchmarking.htm>
<http://openmaniak.com/iperf.php>
<http://code.google.com/p/xjperf/>


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
.

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