Tech Outpost

[Wikipedian]

I have a Netgear wpn 824 and I was wondering which encription is the strongest WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-AES.   Furthermore, what is SPI and NAT and how to properly use the "firewall" of the router?  Where can I get "defintions" for the router?

[Plankton]

Hi Wikipedian:

I believe that is the RangeMax wireless router. Good product, IMO.

The strongest encryption which should be supported is WPA2-AES (create a unique long password!)

Contact Netgear directly for the firewall information.

Personally, I would just use NIS 2010 on each system (isn't that why you are here? ).

SPI is Stateful Packet Inspection and NAT is Network Address Translation (leave those turned on).

Here is a decent link that explains the differences.

Cheers!

P.S. Check with Netgear to see if you need a Firmware upgrade (download) for the router to support the latest specs. WPA2-AES may or may not be supported.

Message Edited by Plankton on 11-24-2009 08:38 PM

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter · Accepted solution]

Hi Wikipedian,

WPA2-AES is the strongest encryption currently in use.  WEP is the weakest, is easily cracked, and should only be used if there is no other choice.  The type of encryption you chose is limited by what all the devices on your network will support.  So even if you have a brand new PC that supports WPA2, if you are also going to connect an older computer that only supports WPA-PSK, then you will have to settle for the less secure WPA-PSK.

NAT is how the router sends incoming packets to the correct computer on your network that requested the communication.  If incoming traffic was not solicited by a device on your network the router will not know where to send it and the communication is dropped.  Thus NAT acts as a very good firewall.  SPI looks at the outbound traffic and blocks any return communication that does not correspond to the type of traffic that was expected.

Finally, the amount of configuration that you can do to router firewalls will vary by brand and model.  Generally leaving the default settings will be the best option.  Consult the documentation for your router for firewall information.

[floplot Norton Fighter]

Your ISP may also have a say in what you can do with your router.

[Wikipedian]

How about FIPS?  Should I enable that on my computer?