Is it safe to disable wireless security settings on LAN if using address reservation & static IP's?

Question

I have a Netgear DG834GUv5 router with 4 wired LAN connections and wireless capability.
4 PC's are attached via cable and 2 others with wireless cards.
The problem I had was the wireless cards would sometimes disconnected and reconnect randomly and many times I would not be allowed access over the windows filesharing network from or to the wireless connected PC's which is a real problem because the PC's are used for an internet cafe that really requires this filesharing capability for printing and everyday activities that go on.
After many attempts to fix the problem I now find the only thing has been working is to completely disable the wireless security(WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK) and use static reserved IP addresses with the router and and terminals as I don't really need to be able to attach any other devices automatically like with a hotspot or such.
But I am worried about security issues. The router has a setting called access control which supposedly only allows the reserved IP's (which are static on the PC's) and mac addresses to access the router. I need to know if my network will be safe with these settings.

Answer 1

I think that disabling the Wireless Security is not a good idea. I completely agree with TAIQI. If you have any WiFi network, by disabling those settings, any one outside the cafe or in the cafe, can access your WiFi network by using any wireless devices such as mobile phones, laptops etc. resulting badly the profit of your cafe. Why the people enter your cafe when they can use your network freely....??? So it's better to hide the SSID than disabling the security settings. For more security & user friendliness, use the latest Windows always. By now it's Windows 7.

Answer 2

I think that you've misdiagnosed the problem. Even if you have the DHCP service disabled, you can still assign static IPs outside of the range of addresses used by the DHCP server. It sounds like you have another problem and your idea to disable DHCP will not fix it.

Answer 3

Hey



you pretty much know your stuff :-)

I say that with reserved IP addresses associated with MAC ddresses it is safe for wired connection but with wi-fi activated and not encrypted anyone from outside who is catching your signal could use it. you can look in options to hide the SSID (the router's name)