tashi is also a master of understatement!tashi offers good advice.
My router does offer WPA but then I can't put my tivo boxes on the network.
How prevalent do you think hacking into home wi-fi networks is? ( I like my tivo...)
tashi is also a master of understatement!tashi offers good advice.
My router does offer WPA but then I can't put my tivo boxes on the network.
How prevalent do you think hacking into home wi-fi networks is? ( I like my tivo...)
Well, if your router supports WPA or higher, I'd suggest you enable it.
I never knew TiVo supported Wi-Fi o_o.
Well, I think that if you do not have a password on your network it is pretty much susceptible to being accessed without authorization.
Hi hannahj,
Depends on many factors including where you live - for example, if you live in the city more people are likely to be in range of your network thus increasing the risk of someone trying to piggyback off your connection. On the otherhand, I would have thought that the risk is much lower in the countryside due population density being lower.
The WEP password protocol has been easily crackable for some time now and even a flaw in WPA TKIP was discovered and therefore a stronger protocol such as WPA2 (which uses AES password encryption) is suggested to be used. Of course, what's the point of having bandwidth if you can't use devices such as your Tivo? Obviously you have to find the right balance between security and usability. Unfortunately for some strange reason we live in a world where many product designers don't consider their user's security when it comes to wireless connectivity.
Simply put, if you live in an area with a low population density, a password using WEP (albeit crackable) is a better than nothing, but if you live in a highly populated area, then I would strongly consider using WPA2.
Whatever protocol you use you should make sure you use a strong password.
It seems that TiVo has released some kind of dongle for series 2 and 3 TiVos that appears to support WPA (although there was no information on TiVo's website). You would, however, have to pay for the damned thing which personally I view as just another way to extract cash out of customers.
Last edited by honda12; 2010-01-08 at 14:42.
Hi drragostea and honda12,
Yes tivo supports wi-fi - up to a point. I already have the "dongle" (good word!) and paid handsomely for it. It appears to only support WEP... sigh.
I have always had a strong pw for my router, but like you said WEP is easily cracked. And I don't live in the country.
I think at this point what I would most like is to be able to scrutinize my router and firewall logs and actually know what I'm looking at. Any idea where I could learn more about this subject?
Thanks to everyone for your help and insights!
Hi there,
DSLReports has specialized forums: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wsecurity
Hope that helps.
Microsoft MVP Reconnect 2018-
Windows Insider MVP 2016-2018
Microsoft Consumer Security MVP 2006-2016
Yay - a whole new forum to lose myself in!
(I'm never gonna get any work done today.)
Thanks tashi.