Need SSID/Encryption Advice

[DAve Jenkins]

I have 2 PCs attached to a Linksys WRT54G wireless router via Ethernet. Also on that Ethernet, I have a Linksys WAP, in another part of the house. I occasionally connect a laptop wirelessly to the wireless router or WAP, depending on where I am in the house. The router has a SSID of "Main" (say) and the WAP has an SSID of "Den" (say). Neither of them has encyrption enabled, and SSIDs are being broadcast.


I have (in another small house on the property) a PC that has a bridge connected to its own Ethernet, which communicates with the WAP in the main house.

We live in the country, and the nearest neighbor is about 1/4 mile away, and we're about the same distance from the nearest road. It's not likely that folks will drive up our lane looking for free internet access.

Here're my questions:
1) Should the SSIDs of the two devices be the same? If so, why?
2) Should the SSIDs be broadcast? Why? Why not? Both of them?
2) If I were to change the SSIDs to be the same, will that affect the connectability of the remote PC connection? That is, will I have to do some bridge reconfiguration? (It was hell getting all that to work in the first place, and I don't relish exposing myself to more of that pain, if I can keep from it.)
3) What kind of encryption, if any, should I specify? Are there any implications to enabling encryption? For instance, do I do encryption on both the router AND the WAP? Does it have to be the same kind of encryption on both devices?

I'm really ignorant on all of this, and can use some advice - thanks!

[JackMDS]

Same or different SSID depends on habits rathet then rules.

It take 10. sec to change SSID try each combination for few days and see which one works better for you.

SSID shouls be On, http://www.ezlan.net/faq#ssid

If you feel that your specific envioroment is safe, use at least the MAC filter.

Wireless Security. (http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html)

:D

[DAve Jenkins]

Thanks for the input. I read the references you pointed out, and they are helpful My question still stands, though, about the differing SSIDs for the two wireless access points on the wireless network: the router and the WAP - any downside to making them the same (they're currently different - no particular reason why, but that's the way everything ended up getting installed).

[Sooner Al]

If you want to roam between devices you would need to set both device SSIDs to be the same but configure the broadcast channel to be different, ie. one would use Channel 1 and the Channel 11 for example. Make sure that if your using encryption (WPA or WEP) that the encryption key is the same on each one also. Additionally if your using MAC Address Authentication then you obviously need to make sure your trusted client MAC addresses are entered into each device. Note MAC Address Authentication is not a real fool proof security measure. Your better off, IMHO, to use the strongest encryption your access points and clients support.