WEP v. WPA advice for wireless neophyte please..

A wireless network in a recreational vehicle requires two
print servers. I'm having trouble finding one that has both
a parallel port and WPA security. Recognizing any node that
lacks WPA will degrade the entire network to a lower
security, can I abandon the quest for WPA?

The XP SP2 computers have user profiles and passwords. I
prefer to not use NTFS security at the folder or file level.

The network will operate in various North American
campgrounds, rarely near a big city. In this setting is
there any way to know whether WEP security is adequate to
prevent a hacker from reading and changing NTFS files?

--David

 

See my response to your other thread -- D-Link DP-G301.

 

Can I conclude from your post in the other thread that using
WPA instead of WEP is important and that I should not settle
for WEP?

 

the generally-accepted wisdom is that WEP is relatively easy to crack.
See, e.g., http://tinyurl.com/bykx8 I'm not convinced that a rural
setting is less likely to be inhabited by computerized evildoers than an
urban setting, but if you take other precautions, such as a good
firewall and use of NTFS permissions, you should probably be OK with
WEP. Use 128-bit WEP, a "good" password/passphrase (e.g., not your
name, ssid, or English word) to generate the WEP key (if you have to
manually enter the key--which you probably will if you mix
vendors--don't use patterns in the sequence), and change your key
regularly and often.

 

Thank you very much for the tutorial. The route to a secure
wireless network is now clear -- until I begin installing
it. :=)