[vasudeva]

I used this router from 2011 to 2012. Then I changed the broadband to Airtel and got their router. However, the router got wet and damaged, and so I bought this again in July 2014.

http://www.amazon.in/Netgear-DGN2200...netgear+router

Very good router for my house (1200 sq.ft). Unlike Airtel, no dropping connections on wifi (laptop). With Airtel, I frequently had to disconnect router, shut down PC, and restart router and PC. No such thing with Netgear, as far as I recall.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Zappo

... But then typically, he will have to spend another good 10 mins to figure out the password, and if its a strong password even more time.

Thanks for a very helpful real-world post. How long would your imaginary hacker in a van take to figure out my 64-character, meaningless-string password? It's hell to enter by hand on those odd occasions another device requires it, but, in my dreams, it keeps me safer.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Thanks for a very helpful real-world post. How long would your imaginary hacker in a van take to figure out my 64-character, meaningless-string password? It's hell to enter by hand on those odd occasions another device requires it, but, in my dreams, it keeps me safer.

You are safe beyond words

Other than trying a brute force method I dont see any other option to break into a 64 character long password made of meaningless permutation of letters, digits and numbers. Even if you use just letters the possible permutations can be crazy. To give an idea, of the 64 letter string, if you had to evensay that none of the letters can be repeated in your password you still have 403291461126605635584000000 ways to form your password. That's a mind boggling number. Now think of a situation where you are saying you do not have any such restrictions! This can take time beyond wildest imagination to crack open by brute force method.

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

I am planning to get the Airtel 4G connection at home here in Calcutta and I am opting for the router as I will be using 2/3 machines. They are offering the Huwaei router right now. Any opinion on the quality of service, connection etc? I am an Airtel mobile phone user for the last 12 years or so and am very satisfied with their quality. Can I expect the same on 4G?
I hope I posted in the correct thread.

Hi Sudipto,

I have an Airtel 4G connection and use the router supplied by them. I connect 2 laptops, one tab and 3 or 4 phones and the router works fine (though I don't know having these many simultaneous connections with out any issue or drop in connection is a +point of the router or of the connection).

I have not faced any drops and gets rage in all corners of my home (1151 sqft apartment) and can often get my connection on the apartment above mine and on the parking lot (I stay in 2nd floor).

I am using the connection for around 6 months and my modem is powered on 24\7 on all days, but till now, have not faced any issues (touchwood).

Is there anything specific you would like to know?

--Anoop

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

I am planning to get the Airtel 4G connection at home here in Calcutta and I am opting for the router as I will be using 2/3 machines.
They are offering the Huwaei router right now.
Any opinion on the quality of service, connection etc ?

Cross-post : My experience with Airtel's 4G service here in Bangalore.

Except for the signal issue, the ALR-W192 Router itself is very good.
When it ( 4G Service ) works, it works very well, in particular upload bandwidth.
The Router also has no issues with a multiplicity of devices, typical workload at home is 3 Laptops, 2 Desktops, 2 iPhones, & 1 Nexus-4.
The best bit is the internal battery on the Router

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

I am an Airtel mobile phone user for the last 12 years or so and am very satisfied with their quality.
Can I expect the same on 4G ?

Similar story here, have been, & still 'am, a very satisfied Airtel Chennai customer since 2003.
Which is why I insisted on going with Airtel in Bangalore too.
Purely based on my experience, I would rate this 4G service at 7 / 10.
.

[amitk26]

Well 64 character does not ensure any mpre security then a 8 character or 16 character.
Also you need not try combinations to crack password a normal laptop can run scripts for you.

Here is tutorial on how it can be done for WEP there are methods fpr WPA as well.

http://lifehacker.com/5305094/how-to...with-backtrack

@Thad if you really want to secure then use a certificate based wifi authentication.
SSL certs can be used instead of password.
May be a VPN comes next in list.

But then we need to really access of our data merits this kind of attention.
For my home usage I dind wpa2-psk coupled with mac filter and hidden SSID to be good enough.

Originally Posted by Zappo

You are safe beyond words

Other than trying a brute force method I dont see any other option to break into a 64 character long password made of meaningless permutation of letters, digits and numbers. Even if you use just letters the possible permutations can be crazy. To give an idea, of the 64 letter string, if you had to evensay that none of the letters can be repeated in your password you still have 403291461126605635584000000 ways to form your password. That's a mind boggling number. Now think of a situation where you are saying you do not have any such restrictions! This can take time beyond wildest imagination to crack open by brute force method.

Most likely attack will involve a computer so 64 character ia nothing the security mechanism should be strong.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks for your input guys.

Being just a normal domestic situation, I do suspect that I am secure enough. Just like chaining you luggage on a train won't be much deterrent to a guy with a pair of pliers, it will put off the one who just looks around for something he can pick up and walk off with.

I'm not really worried about anyone getting access to my network: I'd be more worried about the opportunist user who needs to hide behind someone else. The event where someone used an unguarded domestic net to send terrorist threats is in my mind, because it might have been a one-off, or even a one in a million, but the knock-on effects of such a thing being traced to one's home could be as momentous as the house itself burning down.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Thanks for a very helpful real-world post. How long would your imaginary hacker in a van take to figure out my 64-character, meaningless-string password? It's hell to enter by hand on those odd occasions another device requires it, but, in my dreams, it keeps me safer.

Have you actually memorized your 64-character password or is it written down somewhere? Do you share it with friends/family etc.? You also need to ask yourself whether your safety measures pass the Randall Munroe Test - http://xkcd.com/538/.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I'm not really worried about anyone getting access to my network: I'd be more worried about the opportunist user who needs to hide behind someone else. The event where someone used an unguarded domestic net to send terrorist threats is in my mind, because it might have been a one-off, or even a one in a million, but the knock-on effects of such a thing being traced to one's home could be as momentous as the house itself burning down.

There are the type of opportunists you mention, and then there are the type of vindictive folks who if you rub the wrong way, would get into your home Wifi and send an email to DCP or IG or whatever about a threat to a plane or a mall or a school; they track the email to your home and stuff hits the fan. I suspect the latter type is a lot more common than the former.

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Thanks a lot guys. After your inputs I took the demo in my house today. They used a dongle for the demo. It is quite fast and worked like a charm. No hassles. I have paid for the router and activation. I will give you a feedback once the activation is done and I actually use the router.

Thanks everyone for taking the time out to reply to me.

Originally Posted by GJ01

I had used a Huwaei Wifi Router earlier (3 years back) in the US without any issues. I currently have a Belkin N (surf) router that I got for about 1200 Rs 3 years ago and its been serving me very well.

For 4G in India you cannot choose which router brand to take. You just have to accept whatever brand they give you. In my case it is Huwaei. Currently I use a Netgear. It works just fine despite inches of dust on it (collected over the last several years). If I could, I would use that. But I cannot.

Originally Posted by vasudeva

I used this router from 2011 to 2012. Then I changed the broadband to Airtel and got their router. However, the router got wet and damaged, and so I bought this again in July 2014.

Thanks for your input. I am going for it.

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Hi Sudipto,

I have an Airtel 4G connection and use the router supplied by them. I connect 2 laptops, one tab and 3 or 4 phones and the router works fine (though I don't know having these many simultaneous connections with out any issue or drop in connection is a +point of the router or of the connection).

I have not faced any drops and gets rage in all corners of my home (1151 sqft apartment) and can often get my connection on the apartment above mine and on the parking lot (I stay in 2nd floor).

I am using the connection for around 6 months and my modem is powered on 24\7 on all days, but till now, have not faced any issues (touchwood).

Is there anything specific you would like to know?

--Anoop

Thanks a tonne. No nothing in particular. Just that I wanted some real user's experience before committing Rs 2k +. Thanks for your input.

Originally Posted by im_srini

My experience with Airtel's 4G service here in Bangalore.

Except for the signal issue, the ALR-W192 Router itself is very good.
When it ( 4G Service ) works, it works very well, in particular upload bandwidth.

The Router also has no issues with a multiplicity of devices, typical workload at home is 3 Laptops, 2 Desktops, 2 iPhones, & 1 Nexus-4.
The best bit is the internal battery on the Router

Similar story here, have been, & still 'am, a very satisfied Airtel Chennai customer since 2003.
Which is why I insisted on going with Airtel in Bangalore too.
Purely based on my experience, I would rate this 4G service at 7 / 10.
.

Thanks a lot everyone for your inputs. They all helped me take a decision.
Cheers
Sudipto

[binand]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Thanks a lot guys. After your inputs I took the demo in my house today. They used a dongle for the demo. It is quite fast and worked like a charm.

I have read that Airtel caps your 4G bandwidth at 10 Mbps; is that true? Did you do a Speedtest.net? Can you share the result?

[Sudipto-S-Team]

My speed test went like this - went to youtube, searched for aaj madhosh huwa jaye re > clicked > it started right away ;-) i am pretty happy. I have zero knowledge about internet connections and how to test them. Sorry.
I also did an update of my Mac software. It downloaded pretty fast.
Once I get the connection I will do this test and inform you. I hope it's nothing complicated.
I am sure Anoop can throw better light on this capping of speed at 10 mbps.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

My speed test went like this - went to Youtube, searched for aaj madhosh huwa jaye re > clicked > it started right away ;-)

Once I get the connection I will do this test and inform you. I hope it's nothing complicated.

Nope, just visit http://www.speedtest.net/ and click on "Begin Test - Recommended Server". It will go through a lot of fancy stuff and at the end of it click on "Share the Result", "Copy" and paste into a post here. I would much appreciate it.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by binand

Have you actually memorized your 64-character password or is it written down somewhere? Do you share it with friends/family etc.? You also need to ask yourself whether your safety measures pass the Randall Munroe Test - http://xkcd.com/538/.

Ah, yes: repeating horse-staple-something-or-other until the field is full

(Yes, there are several xkcds that once seen, can (and should) never be forgotten!)

No, my passcode would be impossible for anyone other than a memory specialist to memorise. I don't share it with anybody in plain text. I keep it in a sealed lead case, encased in a concrete brick, in a bank vault.

Damn... I hate it when I have to add something to the network!

There are the type of opportunists you mention, and then there are the type of vindictive folks who if you rub the wrong way, would get into your home Wifi and send an email to DCP or IG or whatever about a threat to a plane or a mall or a school; they track the email to your home and stuff hits the fan. I suspect the latter type is a lot more common than the former.

Being specifically targeted in that way hadn't occurred to me. eek.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Being specifically targeted in that way hadn't occurred to me. eek.

I have had reason to work with experts in this field in a past job profile. They were all generally in agreement that such specific targeting is a lot more common (maybe even 80% of all attacks) than the opportunistic behaviour you mentioned in a previous post.

They could range from simple identity theft, revenge attacks and crime investigation to sophisticated corporate and political espionage scenarios.

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by binand

I have read that Airtel caps your 4G bandwidth at 10 Mbps; is that true? Did you do a Speedtest.net? Can you share the result?

Hi Binand,

Nope, I have got speeds more than 10 Mbps. I will check it again today and will post fresh results.

--Anoop