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Old 20-01-2013, 04:58 PM
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deadsimple (Ash)
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 180
For most purposes the combination of the following two security measures will suffice:

  1. WPA2 (AES) with a reasonably long password (12+ characters with non-dictionary words and letters)
  2. A unique SSID of good length with non-dictionary and non-company-name words/letters.
This is all you need and your network will unlikely be overcome by even the most seasoned hacker from the wireless side. Obviously if your computer is virus/trojan infested or if you use Internet Explorer, then your chances of leaking information through the Internet side through phone-home software skyrockets.

MAC address filtering and SSID hiding can be overcome by a novice with any of the dozens of automated hacking programs that are a google search away, and should only be used as temporary measures if you're unable to utilise WPA2 for whatever reason in the short-term.

They have the added disadvantage of being a headache and obstacle when you're trying to legitimately manage a dozen wireless devices on your network (phones, laptops, tablets, TV/media players, etc).

Recommendations to use just MAC filtering or SSID hiding based on anecdotal evidence of "I haven't been hacked yet" is unfortunately doing other people here a disservice, as they may be in more dense areas where there are more "eyes" that may take an interest in the network.
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