Wifi – Does a Wi-Fi repeater handle any networking on behalf of the router

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I have an unbranded Wi-Fi repeater from China. I was reading over the setup instructions and pretty much every sentence had a spelling mistake which has made me worry. The quality isn't so much a concern, but I'm wondering now is it possible for them to have installed some software that will act as a spy on the network and send back sensitive information to the source?

Does a Wi-Fi repeater have the ability to sniff the network data that it is boosting or is it nothing more than a signal booster? It seems as though this device will consume the current Wi-Fi connection and then output the same connection, sort of like a router in bridge mode, but connected wirelessly. Should I be worried that this device could rob my credit card data, or is it safe?

Best Answer

Does a wifi repeater have the ability to sniff the network data that it is boosting or is it nothing more than a signal booster?

Well, all of the traffic is passing through it, so the answer is: yes. If you find yourself having to ask this question at all, don't even consider using the equipment.

If at all possible, stay far away from wifi repeaters. They degrade performance horribly and are the source of all sorts of problems. Just bite the bullet and pull cable so you can install a proper wired access point.

Related Solutions

NAT: If two hosts initiate a connection to the same IP:PORT, with the same source PORT, how does the router handle it

Just because hosts A and B chose port 10123 doesn't mean that is the port that the router uses. The router connects to host C from a source port of it's own choosing. So the connection looks more like this:

                                  router
                          +--------------------+
A:(src:10123, dest:80) -> | A:10123 -> C:43775 | -> C:80
B:(src:10123, dest:80) -> | B:10123 -> C:43776 | -> C:80
                          +--------------------+

Wifi – How does an Access Point handle broadcast packets from the wired side

The access point has to send some broadcast packets into the air, otherwise the network wouldn't work. As long as the wireless interface isn't congested, there is little reason not to send them all. In case of congestion it has to decide which packets goes through and which are dropped. At that point it may handle broadcast packets differently from other packets.

A switch has to transmit a broadcast packet on all ports except from the one it was received on. An access point should not have to send the packet once to every device associated with that access point. Instead it should be sufficient to send it once and have all devices simultaneously receive the packet being broadcast just once.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

NAT: If two hosts initiate a connection to the same IP:PORT, with the same source PORT, how does the router handle it

Wifi – How does an Access Point handle broadcast packets from the wired side

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