Wpa - aes sufficient?

[chrbb]

I've got 5 buffalo access points in school for 2 laptop trolleys and staff laptops. Two of the access points are a couple of years old and don't have WPA2, couple that with the oldest laptops that are 4 years old so I've set security to WPA - PSK AES on the older APs and Wpa/Wpa2 mixed mode on the newer ones. Does that give me enough security?

 

It's a primary school so I think the biggest risk is from the teenager in his bedroom in the same street trying to 'hack' in to our network. The APs are physically switched off at the end of school and during holidays. Also the password isn't a recognisable word.

[SYNACK]

WPA/WPA2 PSK are alright security wise, they are both crackable but require a fair bit of effort the last time I checked. I would think that you would probably be alright with it but would suggst a yearly key change despite its non readable nature. I tend to use a 63 character rando string for such deployments as people are pretty much stuffed if they try to remember it. Just use a USB key and copy/paste.

 

It would be even better if they networks are somewhat isolated with the wireless on a seporate VLAN/subnet joined and restricted by a router but only if you have the gear to implement it.

[Lushamania]

I've got 5 buffalo access points in school for 2 laptop trolleys and staff laptops. Two of the access points are a couple of years old and don't have WPA2, couple that with the oldest laptops that are 4 years old so I've set security to WPA - PSK AES on the older APs and Wpa/Wpa2 mixed mode on the newer ones. Does that give me enough security?

 

It's a primary school so I think the biggest risk is from the teenager in his bedroom in the same street trying to 'hack' in to our network. The APs are physically switched off at the end of school and during holidays. Also the password isn't a recognisable word.

You should be fine with WPA - AES. Stay away from WPA-TKIP, as it can be cracked in less than a minute. Like Synack said, though, make sure you have a lengthy and complex password. PC Tools offers an excellent freeware password generator.