2Wire### - SSID

Soo for the longest time, I have been wondering what these "2wire608 2wire206 etc etc" Wifi SSIDs were. I pick them up on my laptop from inside my house.

Well I do IT residential support on the side, and I was at a clients house tonight, and they had 2Wire### SSID , and quickly I saw an AT&T branded router. No problem there. Untill I noticed that the router was using WEP, and was configured by the AT&T tech to use WEP.

That leaves me wondering why..? would they still use WEP..

I have 2 guesses

1. Maybe they stick with WEP because even if the customer has an old laptop with an older wifi card it will still connect. I know I have had some rather newer laptops only able to connect via no security or only WEP. I would guess in that case AT&T would use WEP just to keep everybody happy.

2. Job Security? Might be more of a job killer the more I think about it.

I do not know this is just something I observed, and it goes against everything we are taught, and it irks me that a major company like AT&T is seemingly just going around and WEPing everybody..

I did some Google searching about 2wire and WEP, and there was a few newb post from people who were smart enough to atleast run WPA or 2.

What do you guys think?

What do you all think?

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Comments

tiersten

2Wire is a manufacturer of SOHO networking gear like DSL routers and must be who actually manufacture the device for AT&T to brand.

It will be setup according to whatever defaults they're told to use. If the user only has WEP and can't support WPA then they'll have to change it to WEP if it isn't already. They can't just turn up and setup it up and say sorry, go buy new hardware! *cough*Nintendo DS*cough*

colemic

What about just ignorance of the technician? Or is it consistently being done by AT&T? And you had newer laptops that would only connect with WEP?

mikej412

You can usually self-install for free -- or pay AT&T to do the installation. Most people opt for free (or their neighbor's kid or their "computer friend") -- and get what they pay for.

hypnotoad

Maybe the 2wire router itself cant handle WPA?

sthompson86

tiersten wrote: »

If the user only has WEP and can't support WPA then they'll have to change it to WEP if it isn't already. They can't just turn up and setup it up and say sorry, go buy new hardware! *cough*Nintendo DS*cough*

I have had to do this with some users who bought a new Wireless router, for they could only use WEP.

I have even had some older Toshiba laptops not even like the new N class class routers, for they would only run with no security.

sthompson86

colemic wrote: »

What about just ignorance of the technician? Or is it consistently being done by AT&T? And you had newer laptops that would only connect with WEP?

Well I only have actually saw that one that was setup by AT&T, and what makes me think that they may just freely setup WEP is because there was this pre-printed AT&T sheet with 2Wire_ _ _ and Wep key _ _ _ _ _ _ _ for the technician to fill in the blanks and hand the customer for keep.

sthompson86

This is just an innocent observation nothing more, and I just wanted to see what you all thought.

xenodamus

I did alot of SOHO setups at my last job and up until these 2Wire boxes, all the previous routers I setup on AT&T were totally open with no security by default. So, I guess WEP is better than nothing. I would think they probably use WEP as opposed to WPA/2 to avoid issues with compatibility out of the box. If I remember correctly, Windows XP itself doesn't support WPA/2 if you don't have the right service pack.

Devilsbane

2Wire is just a brand name. They used to have a deal with qwest, so there were lots of them. I think qwest uses motorolla now though.

WEP is the default setup, and it isn't surprising that a person who signs up for qwest and then accepts whatever modem/router that they get sent is probably just going to stick with the default setup. The username/password on the device is probably admin admin too.

egb893

I think it has to do with the technician who installs it. When I first got Uverse(AT&T) the wireless was set to WEP from the factory. My home gateway went bad earlier this year and when the tech replaced it I watched him switch the encryption from WPA2 to WEP, put the key to my phone number, admin password to password, and change the ssid to my last name ex. SmithFamilyWireless. He was a nice guy with good customer service but it seems he wasn't trained properly about security

Devilsbane

egb893 wrote: »

He was a nice guy with good customer service but it seems he wasn't trained properly about security

Your ISP or whoever installed this isn't concerned with security. They are concerned with usability. Sure, they could set up WPA2 and turn on mac filtering, and not broadcast your SSID. But now everytime you want to add a new computer (for example if a friend or family member comes over and spends the night) you would have to call them back to come add it.

If they got you running and were able to set some basic security, then thats great.

And as far as SSID's go, your name shouldn't be in it. But it could be worse. The other day I saw a SSID that was 12343rdstapt6. How secure is that? I'm surprised they didn't include a SSN with it.

Mike-Mike

I was an AT&T DSL Tech for several years, customers either get a Motorola DSL Modem or the 2Wire DSL Modem/Wireless router combo... I still have one in my house, it's a good product with a strong wifi signal... it can do WPA, but it's set up with WEP by default, which is how it's left... When I was a tech I would change it to WPA, but most techs aren't that technically savy when it comes to non-AT&T stuff..

we were highly trained on getting a good signal to the home, but there wasn't much training beyond getting that green DSL light to come on... technically AT&T's demarc is the NID on the outside of the home. Setting up a router was considered going the extra step, so it was normally done as quickly as possible

Devilsbane

Mike-Mike wrote: »

Setting up a router was considered going the extra step

Not with my ISP, that isn't even a step unless you pay the $180. And then they probably crapily set it up with wep, but take 2 hours doing it so that you justify the expense.

katierose

I used to do technical support for these modems. It still gives me nightmares, but anyway. They can call and a technician can painfully walk them through configuring their wireless to WPA2. WEP is better than no encryption at all, but defiantly the weakest security wise.

gosh1976

A non-technical co-worker of mine recently moved and couldn't get their AT&T wireless connected again. The computer connected via ethernet connected fine. The guy had said he had been on the phone with 3 different techs and a manager. Non of them could figure it out and I believe it was the manager sent him out another 2wire DSL modem because his neighbors were probably using up his signal?!??!?

So anyway I go over there and sit down at the PC that uses the wireless to see if I could connect. There was no passphrase saved so I asked if the guy knew it and he told me what he thought it was but that didn't work. So I went over to the other computer did an ipconfig to get the ip address of the modem. Pulled it up in the browser and there was no password set. I think maybe in the move the modem got reset or maybe not; maybe there was never a password. So I got right into the interface and it was set to the defaults: WEP with the passphrase that is printed on the bottom of the modem. I changed it to WPA2 and typed in a new passphrase. Went back to the other computer and connected right up. Took me 5 minutes total.

The technical abilities of the help desk is shocking far worse than the BellSouth Fast Access help desk in the old days. I'm not just saying that because I used to work there. If you went through two techs and an escalation I guarantee at least one of them would think to tell you to turn the modem over and get the passphrase!

Those modems are very easy to set up. I'm guessing most techs don't do anything to the wireless settings.