[MLB-WIRELESS] MAC security - how good is it?

Nath P nathp at optushome.com.au
Wed Feb 12 18:34:20 EST 2003


thanks everyone. that was most helpful (and it didnt even decend into a flame war about what is the best flavour of *nix, bonus)
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tony Langdon 
  To: 'Nath P' ; melbwireless at wireless.org.au 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 9:50 AM
  Subject: RE: [MLB-WIRELESS] MAC security - how good is it?


  that was what i was thinking too, but there are (wired) network cards around with programmable macs. 

  This is very common. 

    so the conclusion i'm getting from all these replies is that mac is only to stop the most casual interference. fair enough. 
  It's a hurdle, but not a significant one to the determined cracker.  In fact, one _disadvantage_ of MAC filtering is that all traffic _will_ come from a legitimate MAC address, so it may be _harder_ to spot attacks...
    is there any major drawbacks to using something like freeSwan? does it take a big speed hit or just a little one like 5% or something?
    thanks, Nathan 

  I don't know what the speed hit is, but I don't think it'd be too significant.  If security is a goal, the benefits would far outweigh the disadvantages. 


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