Do I 'Need' WEP Enabled?

[Tezdread]

Hi,

I have a home network consisting of a couple of wired PC's, a couple of Wifi enabled PDA's and a laptop and recently added Wifi to my MS MCE system.

I have limited the Wifi connection to Mac Addresses but due to the complications in adding WEP to the PDA's haven't bothered setting it up on the Airstation WBR-G54...

How much of a risk is this? Could someone parked up outside my house intercept the data (packet sniffing) that I send over the net? I.e. Online banking details? (Possible but paraniod?)

Setting up WEP on the PDA's seems to be far more complex than on the MCE PC and Win2k Laptop.

On one PDA it only accepts HEX and then when I enter the same ASCII that is used on the MCE PC & Laptop to the other PDA is doesn't accept it. says the string is to short?

What are the dangers here?

[__spc__]

Originally Posted by Tezdread

Hi,

I have a home network consisting of a couple of wired PC's, a couple of Wifi enabled PDA's and a laptop and recently added Wifi to my MS MCE system.

I have limited the Wifi connection to Mac Addresses but due to the complications in adding WEP to the PDA's haven't bothered setting it up on the Airstation WBR-G54...

How much of a risk is this? Could someone parked up outside my house intercept the data (packet sniffing) that I send over the net? I.e. Online banking details? (Possible but paraniod?)

Setting up WEP on the PDA's seems to be far more complex than on the MCE PC and Win2k Laptop.

On one PDA it only accepts HEX and then when I enter the same ASCII that is used on the MCE PC & Laptop to the other PDA is doesn't accept it. says the string is to short?

What are the dangers here?

Any data transmitted wirelessly is susceptible to interception.

If anyone is determined to get your data, they can break WEP in a matter of minutes; I am sure it has to be better than nothing though. Also, disable SSID broadcast.