Hi. I was wondering about configuring security on Airport Extreme base stations. I picked up on one cheap and although I haven't set it up yet, from what I can tell in my research, most of the actual initial setup is done wirelessly. Doesn't that mean that your network is vulnerable in the early minutes when you're setting it up and that technically, whatever WEP or WPA key that you choose can be intercepted? In my other wireless routers, I always did the configurations through a cable because it didn't seem to make sense to transmit passwords, keys, network names, etc. through the air before encryption had been established. Is this some kind of acceptable risk to Apple or does Apple hardware have some kind of secret way of talking to eachother that I'm not aware of? Thanks.
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Airport Extreme Configuration Question
- Thread starter grannysmith
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If you have an Ethernet cable, why not just plug into the Airport Extreme for 10 minutes and do configuration that way? That's what I did...
Well, remember that the key is being sent and accepted every time you log onto the network, plus every time the session times out. The brief period it takes for you to initially enter the key is nothing in terms of time compared with this constant transmission of your key.