need to safeguard wireless connection...network key?
snoangel
midwest
I am using the internet in my apartment via a wireless connection. Right now, my connection indicates that it is an "unsecured wireless network" and is configured for open access. I notice that other wireless networks in my building are "security enabled" and require a network key. How can I configure my connection so that it is more secure and others can't access it? Thanks so much!
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Good idea securing it. Having an open network means you are basically letting others use your bandwidth.
Also, do you have service pack 2 for windows XP?
DrGeo: The most secure consumer wireless encryption you can do right now is WPA-PSK. A combination of WPA-PSK and MAC filtering are pretty effective unless you are being specifically targeted for attack. Someone has to be very determined to get past that combo.
Do you have Revision "A" model or a revision "C" model. On the bottom of the router there will be a barcode sticker and you will see "hardware revision"... I need to know which one - they are different
have a good night
Wireless router setup
1. plug in a RJ-45/Straight-Through/USTP/STP/Cat-5/etc/etc/etc too many different classifications, best buy likes to say: "(pause)...um........network cable?????" ...crappy joke... either way plug it into the port designated for the internet connection and then into your nic or motherboard (depending on whether it was an expansion or not) next....
2. Go to the address bar on your browser or taskbar (depending how u have things set up for your desktop) and put in 192.168.1.1, this is a reserved factory default address for your broadband hardware.
3 when it prompts you for a login and password. It will probably be one of these:
Login: admin
Password: password
Login: admin
Password: admin
Login: admin
Password: (blank)
...well you get the idea, just use different combinations of that and it usually works but the first one is usually the most likely.
4. now that you are logged in, make sure your gateway settings are correct and you have some DNS values set and whatever you need to correctly communicate w/ the ISP (they provide this info unless you are an ISP :P) so call them if you lack this... set your router as a gateway, turn off SSID so others will have a much harder time detecting it (especially if you live in a city) (SSID (spread spectrum identifier) is a broadcast through all of its supported frequencies of whatever you name your router's wireless network). go back to your start menu real fast, click on "run" type "cmd" when the command prompt appears type in "ipconfig /all" (btw the " " marks are not included) , this will now display all of your IP addresses which unless dynamically set (which they very likely will be by DHCP) are no interest to you. You are looking for the wireless adapter's MAC address it is a twelve digit hexadecimal string that has dashes separating every pair/byte of data. One hexadecimal value is equal to 4 binary values and is referred to as a niblet (it might be spelt w/ a y I'm not sure) and the values range from 0 to 9 and from A to F which makes 16 values (10-dec, 6-hex). Either way write down the 12 values it doesn’t matter if they are lowercase the router will make them uppercase no matter how you enter it. Now that you have that type in exit and the command prompt will close. Go to where you set your MAC filter values and stuff and select where it says something like "only allow the listed MAC addresses" or something like that, that way if they do eventually have a successful brute force they will be crying when it will fail to work. Enter the 12 digit code the dashes are unnecessary, the router will make everything looking all standardized. Save your changes (remember to constantly do that after all the settings on a page are done.
5. Now give your router a name.
7. Set the wireless channel to something not on default; remember the number they give you. Do 7 or 6 or something. now go back into the start menu and click on connect to then click on show all connections then right click on the wireless connection displayed then click properties from that menu then when it displays go to configure then go to advanced and all products are different but it will be called channel or frequency or something close to that and set that value to the channel value in your router. This will make it even harder to detect for war drivers. If it doesn’t display it like my D-Link one it will automatically detect it, if you have trouble finding some things RTFM
ok...so we have the MAC address, the filter, the channel, the SSID that isn’t going to be broadcast, oh year remember to give your own values to the login that is really important....it will be found in the administration section of the menu for the router most likely
Make a key. Select WPA-TKIP, make your own, don’t use real words, use abbreviations of words or words of a foreign language in combination w/ the normal words or just do something random with alphabetical letters. before, after or during, it doesn’t matter unless you are really paranoid like me....use some symbols and numbers and put in ones that are far from each other like 3 and 9 but in weird sequences that way the brute force will take forever and they will cry when the MAC filter stops them anyways.
I am really tired though so I’m going to go to sleep because it’s 3AM now. If you want to see some other tutorials when I get them up on the site you can go to www.rwrsolutions.net
Good night
Ray