New Laptop Has no WPA. Any Solutions?

My sister just got a new laptop, and I'm setting it up for her. While reading the manual, it mentioned connecting with WEP, but nothing about WPA. Sure enough, when I try connecting with WPA, it's a no go. Seems to work fine when open, or using WEP.

Is there anything I can do to enable WPA, short of using a PC card? My sister's moving into an apartment, and I'd rather she not be stuck using some weak protection like WEP, MAC filtering, and whatnot, which anyone in the vicinity could crack. Thanks.

 

Unless somebody is REALLY determined to crack it, using WEP with MAC filtering (only allowing her system to gain access) will deter and thwart most usual hacking attempts. If you really fret about her being used as a free hotspot, remember that even WPA is not entirely secure.

I don't think you're really up the river without WPA (though WPA does add that 'I can sleep at night' feeling) and shouldn't worry too much about adding a different wireless card just for it.

IDEA- You could set her router to only assign one IP address at a time if it has that ability to add an extra layer of security. Set her MAC address as the ONLY allowable connection as well. Disable SSID broadcasting too- don't make her any more of a target than she already is.

 

If you can get WPA, more power to you. No reason not to have it, except that adding security measures increases the overall cost of the system. You may have to weigh the cost of preventing attacks that are probably (can't say they won't, you can never tell which neighborhood has the 'leet hacker) not going to be a serious threat.

zx10: If somebody really wants in, they're already there. You just don't know it. All the security in the world isn't going to stop a determined person with the right tools. You'd have to go from deterrence to 'prevention', where you inflict damage upon the offender to get really secure. It's like this: how many airbags does your car need? Every one adds another layer of protection, but the question always is how many can you get away with not having? If I had the money, I could buy a multi-million dollar corporate firewall to protect my home PC and be guaranteed a legendary level of security-but I don't have that much to protect to justify the cost. I'm just saying that if he can't get WPA, it's not like he's leaving his keys in an unlocked ferrari in the bad part of town with cash in the cupholder.

 

it might help if the OP can mention the model/brand laptop and the network card in the system That might help determine if the NIC should already have WPA support.

I find it hard to imagine that any new system would not have WPA support. So it should already be there...

 

Is it still very easy for people to view your packets/info while using WEP even if you have MAC filter enabled.

I have a MAC filter enabled while using WPA, but I'm thinking about going back to WEP with the MAC filter still enabled so I can use my Smartphone with WiFi too. My Smartphone does not support WPA. I wouldn't be using my Phone on WiFi alot, but it would be nice to have when I feel I need it. Is it worth the security?

FYI .... I live in a VERY busy WiFi area. At least 30-75 WiFi signals depending on the time of day.

 

MAC filtering only prevents them from connecting to your access point. Intercepting radio wave transmission, cracking the WEP key, and determining which MAC addresses that are allowed doesn't require you to connect to the access point. And once the WEP key is cracked, then all your transmissions are unencrypted to that person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy

 

Ok, link made me understand better. THANKS.

But I'm still a bit lost on the access point explaination.

 

Bit lost on what about access points?

 

From quote below, why wouldn't a MAC addresss require to connect to the access point? Thats what I'm lost about.

 

Because looking at the TCP/IP traffic in the air you can work out what MAC addresses are talking with a particular access point.

 

The laptop is a Toshiba A100-TA1 (or PSAA5C-TA102C). I think it uses something by Atheros for wireless.

I'm sure it's not exactly "new" by production standards, since it's running WinXP, and I got it on clearance. But I figured if the PCMCIA card we bought 3 years ago could handle WPA, anything produced semi-recently would have it standard.

 

Here's the latest driver and utility available for your card from Toshiba.

You can get generic Atheros wireless drivers from here.

 

Alrighty. I thought I saw several versions of wireless stuff on there, but I guess some of it's for Vista. I'll give that a shot, and if all else fails, get a hold of Toshiba somehow. Thanks.

I may just teach her and her roommate the ways of the dreaded ethernet cable to save everyone a bunch of headaches.