Anti-Wi-Fi paint keeps your wireless signal to yourself

[HappyFeet]

Very interesting. Might be useful for you paranoid types. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/151779

[starcannon]

Actually a fairly old technology, at least over 5 years old, I can't remember for sure the first time I read about it; but it was well before I bought the house I currently live in. Anyway, it has not been a raging success for several obvious reasons; not the least of which is, "what if I want wifi access out in my yard?" or, "what about windows, and other openings that one would not paint?".

Set a good password(>=15 mixed characters), use WPA2 or better, use MAC filtering, hide your signal, and you'll be much better off, and still have uninhibited wifi access anywhere on your property. Locks only keep honest people honest, paint will not stop criminals.

GL and HF

[CharlesA]

The key for my wifi is 64-bit WPA2 key. Not worth the time to crack when there are plenty of unsecured wifi spots around.

Who wants to deal with paint when you can just secure the router and be good to go.

[juancarlospaco]

BTW MAC filtering is not safe at all...

[NoaHall]

I know my code off by heart. It's 32 characters long, all of them random.

[CharlesA]

BTW MAC filtering is not safe at all...

This. If someone wants in your network badly enuff, simple MAC filtering isn't going to help you. Considering it's easy to sniff MAC addresses, you'd be better off just setting your DHCP server to only lease out a limited amount of addresses.

[jwbrase]

Anyway, it has not been a raging success for several obvious reasons; not the least of which is, "what if I want wifi access out in my yard?" or, "what about windows,

Who needs Windows? I use Ubunutu. :tongue:

[NoaHall]

That was a just a horrible joke ;)

[starcannon]

BTW MAC filtering is not safe at all...
I never meant to suggest MAC filtering alone, I meant it as part of a system of walls to make it more difficult to break in.

As I stated, locks keep honest people honest. I certainly do not delude myself that a network, particularly the wireless variety, can ever be perfectly safe.

GL and HF

[Niko Johnson]

i read this artical a while back too. its weird to think that a certin paint keeps your signal to yourself.. its pretty cool thoe

[handy]

Someone should Gimp up photo of a house with its tin foil hat on...

[cariboo]

My place is pretty close to having a tin foil hat, I have aluminium siding. :)

[lisati]

I use a combination of WPA2 and MAC filtering on both my routers. It won't guarantee 100% security but will slow things down a little bit for someone who has the cheek to try.

Only my current laptop (or someone who has guessed my WPA2 key and is able to spoof my laptop's MAC address) is allowed to connect at the moment. The USB hub/printer port/serial port/wireless dongle I got when I first had a wireless router isn't allowed to connect: I occasionally have people with light fingers visit and don't want to take the risk if it goes walking (no proof but a sneaking suspicion of who is likely).

[falconindy]

This. If someone wants in your network badly enuff, simple MAC filtering isn't going to help you. Considering it's easy to sniff MAC addresses, you'd be better off just setting your DHCP server to only lease out a limited amount of addresses.
Because it's real hard to set a static IP when you know where your authentication requests are bouncing off of, right?

I think you meant to say something along the lines of, alter your subnet mask to limit available addresses. That is, masking 29 bits rather than 24 gives you 7 available addresses on your LAN. Still a flaky proposition.

[starcannon]

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6869/tinfoilhathouse.th.jpg (http://img63.imageshack.us/i/tinfoilhathouse.jpg/)

[witeshark17]

Every router in my neighborhood seems to have good password security. \\:D/

[misfitpierce]

Can just put foil up on your walls. Friend did this and it killed the signal from reaching his room from before. :P

[handy]

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6869/tinfoilhathouse.th.jpg (http://img63.imageshack.us/i/tinfoilhathouse.jpg/)

Thanks; that should foil the stealer's of other people's waves. :)

You know the user could put an heater flue up through the centre of their house hat.

[CharlesA]

Because it's real hard to set a static IP when you know where your authentication requests are bouncing off of, right?

I think you meant to say something along the lines of, alter your subnet mask to limit available addresses. That is, masking 29 bits rather than 24 gives you 7 available addresses on your LAN. Still a flaky proposition.

Got a better way?

If someone wants to spend the time and resources to crack a WPA2 key, then you've got a bigger problems.

[witeshark17]

Got a better way?

If someone wants to spend the time and resources to crack a WPA2 key, then you've got a bigger problems. This I agree with... :guitar: