Privacy

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Is connecting a Windows computer to your wired network worse than keeping it on Wi-Fi? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm not that knowledgeable on networking, but I do remember that if a device is connected to a wired network, it can end up receiving packets not meant for it because switches will flood all the ports for packets they don't know how to route. But I also heard that Wi-Fi is supposedly smarter than that and a device connected to it should never receive a packet not meant for it.

Is this true? And in practice, does this mean it's preferable should keep computers with invasive operating systems (which might decide to record foreign packets sent to it in its telemetry) on Wi-Fi instead of on the wired network?

Also, how exactly does Wi-Fi prevent devices from receiving the wrong packets when it's a radio based system and any suitable antenna can receive any Wi-Fi signal? Does each device get assigned a unique encryption key and so is only capable of decrypting packets meant for it? How secure is it actually?

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

it can end up receiving packets not meant for it because switches will flood all the ports for packets they don’t know how to route

This is only applicable to IPv4 networking and is very much "the old way" of doing things. If you have properly designed and set up your own home network, you shouldn't be having broadcast traffic happen at all, because all your switches should have a MAC table that includes all the devices you have physically connected. Especially if you have bothered to take the time to hand out static addresses tied to the MAC address. A broadcast should generally only be happening if there is an unknown destination on the LAN, and an unknown destination only happens when there is a new device added at an unknown location. Once a broadcast packet has been sent and replied to, the switch fills it's MAC table with the information on the new device, now knowing it's location.

Wi-Fi's packets can be intercepted by anyone, it's technically sending all packets on blast as radio waves at all times. Sure, modern Wi-Fi can be encrypted, but that encryption can also often be broken.

Finally, IPv6 doesn't use broadcast packets at all, instead using multicasting, which is similar to a broadcast but doesn't flood every port in the wired network and is a bit more tightly directed.