C2RL R
Member
Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
User status: Offline
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as some of you may have read in offday, i have recently had my paypal account hacked and have had £828 stolen from my account. i'm paranoid about how secure my wireless connection at home is now. how can i check that it is good enough? i know very little about this stuff so even basic info would be a big help. my ISP is BT and i have a home hub connected to my desktop wirelessly.
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Go into your home hub and make sure the security is set to WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK if possible, either of them is about as secure as you can get in the home, and as secure as you currently need to be.
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moka
Member
Registered: 11th Mar 06
User status: Offline
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as John said but also enable mac address filtering. Each network adapter has its own unique mac address and you can tell your router to only connect to these. To get the mac address on your pc go to run and type CMD then type ipconfig /all. Another way to secure your wireless would be to turn the SSID broadcast off so it doesnt broadcast the wireless network name.
I would also recommend using Firefox as your internet browser - getting yourself a firewall (Comodo for example) and using unguessable passwords such as hsk490Fs2! (notice lower case HIGHER CASE, numbers, other characters and the fact its not a word). Your account could of been hacked as a result of a phising attempt (google it) there quite common! Other ways to be secure would be to never use public computers to login to any bank accounts, paypal accounts etc. Also do a virus / trojan / spyware scan and rid your computer of software that has the potential to steal your information.
hope this helps you and others!
[Edited on 24-02-2009 by moka]
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C2RL R
Member
Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
User status: Offline
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cheers mate, i'll look into that later.
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Don't worry about the mac filtering, if you've got WPA turned on I wouldn't waste my time, I haven't wasted my time on my own network.
Turning the SSID off is security by obscurity, again doesn't really matter if you've got WPA turned on.
Firewalls, up to you, if you're behind a router I wouldn't bother, IE works fine here, if it's the same as the rest of the people on here I don't think your computer was compromised, just your hotmail account and it went from there.
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moka
Member
Registered: 11th Mar 06
User status: Offline
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I have not read his previous post will do after i post this lol
I was just letting him know how he could be extra secure - having his security breached like im sure he would be interested in knowing this. WPA over MAC filtering any day of the week but it would not hurt having both. I also disagree with using IE... Firefox is alot more secure not to mention faster easier to use etc.
Router firewalls are good but a software based firewall will provide extra application based security and will let the user know exactly what applications are doing what.
At the end of the day though mate... just use a strong password and change it at least once every 2-3 months!
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PhilC
Member
Registered: 21st Jan 06
Location: Lancs, UK
User status: Offline
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As above, use WPA-PSK2 (AES)
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
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best if you use pinoptic 
[Edited on 24-02-2009 by chris_uk]
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Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
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Maybe he should just cover his router with his hand, chris.
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Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by chris_uk
best if you use pinoptic
[Edited on 24-02-2009 by chris_uk]
You sure you dont want to go round and offer your big hand for security?
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Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
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FPMSL, beat me to it 
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by loafofbrett
Maybe he should just cover his router with his hand, chris.
worked well so far 
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Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
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Yeah well, my car does 185 mph.
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Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
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Do you use your hand as an air brake?
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Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
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C2RL R
Member
Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
User status: Offline
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i didn't understand these jokes in my off day thread and still don't get them in here....wtf you lot an about?
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Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by C2RL R
i didn't understand these jokes in my off day thread and still don't get them in here....wtf you lot an about?
see my thread just below this one - its a long read
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C2RL R
Member
Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
User status: Offline
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yeah you're right, can't be arsed reading all that but get the joke now!
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