Now that's funny....

Does XP (or whatever you use) support WPA2? It's better than normal WPA.

I once encountered a glitch involving my dialup internet and my cordless phone. what I could do was dial up for the net, while it was dialing, turn on my cordless phone and then pull out the base station power.

From this, somehow the signal got screwed up and I could listen to a phone conversation of someone up the road. I actually recognized the voice and would estimate the distance to be at least 100m away. I was also able to reproduce this behavior at different times on different occasions.

Was cool for a while except they weren't very interesting.

And WEP is hardly even security, A dedicated hacker can easily crack a wep signal quickly with almost no traffic. On my own network when I didnt actually use the wireless, but it was enabled. I setup a dedicated computer running a windows wep program and just left if for 2 weeks and it got my key no problem at all. this was with NO TRAFFIC, so you can think of the difference it would make with even the slightest amount. Go for WPA-2 as it is alot harder to crack, or at least use no standard keystrokes such as the Pi character as this makes it alot harder.

There are so many wide-open networks avaialble in both rural and non-rural areas, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, etc., that GENERALLY, if you have sone kind of encryption, any "hacker" that might want to see what you have going on will most likely bypass your SSID and look for an unsecured one. You have to remember, that if you can readily connect to your neighbor's signal and gain internet access and general access to their network, they most likely are not computer savvy themselves and don't have a clue as to what you are doing or even on their network. We could have the which securoty is better debate all day, but some is better than none and if you are a general computer user/internet browsing type of person (which greater than 90% of people are) and you are not dabbling in illegal activities, you should have not to much to worry about.

I myself find that MAC filtering and disabling of the SSID broadcast to be a waste. I force WPA2 only and use a 63 randomized character for my pass phrase. I wish anyone luck that wants to waste time trying tot crack it. Here's a good place to generate a random 63-character pass phrase: http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/.../generator.php

Requires KB893357 to be installed and then it will support WPA2.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357

Its reassuring to read people saying that MAC filtering is as secure as WEP. I have never been able to happily have WEP on my networks... but then I do buy cheap crappy routers...

use BOTH. the idea is to put as many barriers as possible for the creeps to fight with

These are hardly barriers (WEP and MAC filtering). These are just speed bumps before they break into your network.

for those that know how, oh so true, but joe doe neighbor that can't manage GPOs
will never solve the combination.

after all, there IS a big difference in theory and practicality too.

you can never have too many speed bumps in the children's playground

That's true. That's why you use WPA minimum and use Maximum WPA Security (63 characters/504 bits) here and you won't have to worry about MAC filtering or not broadcasting your SSID.

I wish anyone luck trying to crack that.

I DO live in a rural area. Zero stray traffic; that is, any traffic with more that 11 teeth (I know - they're probably techgurus crackpros)...

...so I'm not worried about my wireless gettin' hacked. I'm wantin' only to keep accidental logons from happnin'. I disabled my WPA-PSK, and entered MAC #'s for all 5 machines; 3 laptops, 2 dtops, Windows, Linux, and a partridge in a pear tree.

None of the wireless machines can keep a steady connection, without droppin' off. Before, it was only WPA, and no problems. MAC only, problems. MAC and WPA, no problems.

My router is a budget piece, so I need to reduce impedance from encryption, etc.

Why do I have problems with MAC-only filtering??? Do I need Flo-Max?

that's a good start; I use MAC filtering too hum; Mac filtering is trivial to implement so this IS puzzling. My Netgear does it well,
so which router/model are you using?

Hey there jobeard...

The router is a Ehome EH100. $2 after all the rebates (which I NEVER got!!!).

I know I got it right, because for brief periods, it will stream some public radio content - MAC only. Even when connected wireless, the wireless icon is showing disconnection. ???

try punching your computer really hard...