[CentOS] WEP and CentOS 4

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> The idea, as always, is to make yourself a smaller target than the next guy.
> 
> As always, standard:  
> - No SSID broadcast
> - No Open System access
> - MAC filtering
> - WEP
> - Always VPN
> 
> Use WPA/802.1x if you've got it.

While I agree with the above, it also all depends where you live.  The 
more of the above you apply, the less convinience you have.  If I were 
to live in downtown across the street from Starbucks, than yes, it would 
make sense to apply all of the above.  But, I live in very quiet 
neighboruhood.  Any stranger parked in in my street with laptop would 
attract way too much attention than he might be comfortable with.  I 
wouldn't be too surprised if couple of senior neighboors would write 
down his car's licence plate ;-)

I remember when I was buying the house I live in now, the day before I 
went to see it with my real estate agent, I was parked for couple of 
seconds in front of the house (just to give it a quick look from the 
street).  The next day, previous owner told me (when she saw my car) 
that neighbours told her somebody with the car exactly as mine was 
watching the house the previous day (and I was parked in front of the 
house for couple of seconds only).  Sure, it might take you 5-10 minutes 
to crack my WEP keys, but it will take way less time for my neighbours 
to notice you.

As Bruce wrote in some of his books, the prevention needs to be only 
strong enough to hold until detection and response kick in.