Privacy

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

submitted 3 days 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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[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The flooding a network thing really isn’t an issue, they’ll only flood for the first packet just to find the way and then it stops. Fire up Wireshark on a different machine and transfer a file between two other machines, you won’t see anything. I don’t know too much about WiFi but it probably does the same, it’s just a bridge to the same network.

Wired is probably better because machines can estimate your location from the SSID and they can leak the password giving access to the network.

[–] BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Fire up Wireshark on a different machine and transfer a file between two other machines, you won’t see anything.

This is true, but only because we've replaced Ethernet hubs with switches.

An Ethernet hub was a dumber, cheaper device that imitated a switch, but with a fundamental difference: all connected devices were in the same collision domain.

I don’t know too much about WiFi but it probably does the same, it’s just a bridge to the same network.

Wireless communication has the same problem as Ethernet hubs, with no real solution like a switch though. Any wireless transmission involves an antenna, and transmitting is similar to standing in your yard with a bull horn to talk to your buddy two houses down. Anyone with an antenna can receive the wireless signal you send out. Period.

So some really smart people found ways to keep the stuff you send private, but anyone can sit nearby and capture data going through the air, it's just not anything you can use because of the encryption.