Secuity question

[Philgo]

Hi all

Just bought a Linksys WRT54GS router, WMP54GS PCI Adaptor and a WUSB54G USB Adaptor, to use on my XP SP2 machines.

This is my first experience with wireless stuff and I'm a tiny bit confused, if possible I'd prefer not to use the setup software as I like to understand what's going on.

Now my question.

I am obviously concerned about security. I understand the security settings on the router, but is it not possible that someone can connect straight to the PCI adaptor Ad-hoc. If so, how do I check my machines settings to ensure security.

Thanks in advance.

[Tuttle]

Generally you can configure your NIC into either Infrastructure or Ad-Hoc mode explicitly. If it's in Infrastructure mode it's going to talk to access points, not other NICs.

That said, you should be relying more on something like WEP or WPA anyway. :)

[Philgo]

Thanks Tuttle, I'm now using using Infrastructure mode, was the setting "Any available network (access point preferred)" OK though.

I'm using WPA with the router but how do I setup the NIC for it?

[ecross]

Make sure you have a network adapter has a version of a driver that support this. Please see the following link.

How do I setup my Linksys wireless adapter to use WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)?
http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linksys.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=775&p_created=1084221575&p_sid=2Gye*Ylh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NTUxJnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9c2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwxPSZwX3Byb2RfbHZsMj0mcF9jYXRfbHZsMT0mcF9jYXRfbHZsMj0mcF9zY2ZfbGFuZz0xJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9Y29uZmlndXJlIHdwYQ**&p_li=

[Philgo]

Thanks ecross, I think this is where I'm being dim, I've done that but I thought that I was just setting the NIC to communicate with the Router.

My concern was that I was still vunerable through the NIC.