Quick question re: wireless internet

Bionic Monkey

My internet's been going kind of slow lately, so I dipped into my router settings, and limited access by MAC address to only the devices in my home. I'd already had WEP protection enabled, which I understand isn't the greatest protection out there, but I figured it was better than nothing.

Well, as soon as I enabled MAC filtering, my bandwidth has sped the hell up. This isn't seeking help so much as just a curiosity, but is there something that could have been limiting my bandwidth like that besides someone else tapped into my internet?

corcorigan

Ars Technica did a good guide on all this stuff.

Including why WEP is a complete waste of time and MAC filtering isn't very useful apparently.

Bionic Monkey

I'm reading that article right now. Good stuff so far. I've heard repeatedly that WEP is worthless, but unfortunately, last I checked, it's the only encryption method the Wii and DS support, so I'm stuck with it. Is there a way to encrypt the network better that will still allow my Wii access to the net?

Edit: I see the Wii does support WPA, however the DS still is limited to WEP. I do still occasionally use the DS's wireless ability, so the above question still applies.