Does Time Machine offer WEP encryption?

[mrat93]

I was watching the tutorial online on how to set up Time Capsule, and I didn't see anything about WEP encryption, just WPA. What's the difference? Does the PS3, Wii, DS, and PSP work with that? Thanks.

 

[robbieduncan]

You mean does Time Capsule provide WEP encryption right?

Anyway a quick look at the easily findable and clear tech specs page says yes, it does support WEP.

 

[aristobrat]

What's the difference?

WEP is relatively easy to break. Its good enough if all you want to do is prevent casual person from attaching to your WiFi network, but if all of your devices can do WPA, that seems to be the recommend way of protecting your network.

 

[chrisgeleven]

I was watching the tutorial online on how to set up Time Capsule, and I didn't see anything about WEP encryption, just WPA. What's the difference? Does the PS3, Wii, DS, and PSP work with that? Thanks.

All routers for the past several years are required to support WPA. Most if not all routers support WEP. I know the PS3, Wii, and PSP with the latest firmware work fine with WPA...the DS appears to support only WEP.

If you have a choice, you should always use WPA (or even better, WPA2). WEP is completely and utterly broken from nearly day 1...anyone who can do a Google search can download software to break your WEP encryption in minutes. The same is not the case for WPA or WPA2...they are both designed from the ground up to be very secure and have succeeded in that mission.

So basically, use WPA. End of story.

 

[Diode]

I can break into a network using WEP in a matter of minutes ... if not less.

Use WPA!

 

[alphaod]

If you want to use WEP, you can enable it; just be sure to enable MAC filtering if you do.

 

[pkiula]

Everyone says they can crack into WEP. What if I dont have WEP or WPA, but have filtered the wireless access by only allowed mac addresses? Is this secure?

 

[chrisgeleven]

Everyone says they can crack into WEP. What if I dont have WEP or WPA, but have filtered the wireless access by only allowed mac addresses? Is this secure?

Nope. The MAC addresses are broadcasted in clear text. Anyone with the proper monitoring software will be able to figure out the MAC addresses in moments and then modify their network card's MAC address (yes that can be done) to get onto your network.

Also don't try to hide your SSID. That is useless as well.

The ONLY secure way to secure your wireless network is to use WPA or WPA2. That is it.

I don't even bother hiding my SSID or use MAC address filtering, because WPA is so secure.

 

[minik]

I wish NDS supports WPA encryption. What's Nintendo thinking? Wii handles WPA encryption just fine.

 

[mkrishnan]

I wish NDS supports WPA encryption. What's Nintendo thinking? Wii handles WPA encryption just fine.

This was a major complaint even when the DS was first coming to market (and WPA devices were not as widespread)... Nintendo specifically responded to the criticism with a statement that they just wanted to support typical home setups, IIRC, and refused to discuss putting WPA on the DS. It's really a shame they have not updated the DS in this regard in subsequent generations. WEP only is ridiculous.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

I love macrumors forum spy...

Thanks guys, learned a lot from this thread!