Wireless Network Security

This is an older article, but still a very hot topic. After some recent research I changed a portion of it related to encryption. I had stated previously that 128-bit was exponentially harder to crack than 40-bit WEP encryption and therefore I recommended using 128-bit WEP. However, 128-bit WEP encryption is not significantly more difficult to crack and can impact the performance of the wireless network due to the increased overhead. Using tools like Kismet an attacker can capture your wireless packets and gather enough information to crack the key. WPA encryption is highly recommended if its an option, but if not using 40-bit (or 64-bit from some manufacturers) WEP keys will provide about the same level of protection as the 128-bit keys. See article: Wireless Network Security For The Home.