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At least I'm learning!

Just got a new wireless router and set it all up on my Mac and my mister's laptop. All is well, but I have no idea how to make the network secure. I followed the manual's instructions as far as selecting WEP encryption (or something) but then it asked for a WEP key (or something) and I have no clue what that is. How do I just set it up so that someone accessing my network has to type in a password?

Someone could be stealing my internet connection right now

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

WEP is the encryption that the wireless signal is transmitted with, so someone can't SEE what you're surfing. This won't make it so someone can't log on to your network.

There are a lot of ways to make it so no bum passing by can use your connection, depending on how secure you want it to be.

The easiest way would be to stop broadcasting your SSID. In the setup for your router, there should be an option to either not broadcast, or hide the SSID. This makes only you or anyone who knows the SSID to log on.

After you do that, you'll have to go into your wireless card properties on each computer and manually log on to the ID you set. Also, change the ID from the 'default' that it's usually set to.

another way to help make it more secure is to use MAC address filtering. every network card has it's own MAC address and when you turn on MAC address filtering on the router it allows you to enter the MAC address of any network card or wireless adapter that you want to be able to connect to the router. There should be documentation that came with your router that explains how to set up MAC address filtering and the strongest encryption possible. the thing is you can only setup the maximum encryption that is enabled by both the wireless router and the wireless adapters that you're using. the wireless adapter here at my house supports WPA (which is quite a bit better than WEP) but the adapters we use only support WEP.

As far as WEP goes, there is 64 bit encryption and 128 bit encryption. Use 128 if you can because it is stronger encryption that 64 bit.

Also, I've found it's easier to setup the network and get all the wireless adapters connected first, and then disable the SSID broadcast. The adapter on my computer is a little temperamental and every once in a while when I restart the computer I have to re-enable the broadcast so that my adapter will connect and then I can disable it again.

Let us know if you need help setting up the wireless network settings on the computers that will be using the wireless adapters.

first and foremost before you do any of these things, change your router default password!!

secondly, if your computers are all newer than about 3 years old you should be using WPA or WPA2. it's much stronger encryption and overall gives you more security regardless of whether you broadcast your SSID or not. in reality, turning off the SSID only stops the lazy attackers, as there are ways to find hotspots without knowing the name of the network. it's still a good protection against 90%+ of the population though

also, if your router has logging available, turn it on so you can see if anyone is trying to get into your network. the logs should be fairly easy to read, but if you need help deciphering them you can always post them here basically you should only see your own computers connecting, either by name or by MAC address.

to find your computer's MAC address is easy. in windows, click start->run, type "cmd" (no quotes) in the box and click OK. at the prompt type "ipconfig /all" (no quotes) and you will see a 16 digit address that looks something like 00:--:--:--:--:--:--:-- where the -- stands for some two digit hexadecimal number (0-9, or a-f)

on a mac, go to system preferences->network, then click on your airport (or ethernet) connection and click configure. you'll see a number similar to the above form listed as "airport ID". it will help to write these down and when you're looking through your logs you can see whether or not those are the only MAC addresses connecting to your router. it's really not as difficult as it sounds!

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Okay, not sure if I did the right thing (I looked through the server set-up section and couldn't see any of the things you guys mentioned ). But I turned on the 128-bit WEP encryption and typed in a 26-digit hex key of my own invention (something easy to remember, a bit of a task with 26 digits!). Then, when I next went to connect to my wireless, it asked for a password. I hadn't set up a password for anything but administration (which it asked for in the set-up wizard) so I typed this password in. It wouldn't accept it. So I went instead to the option where it asked for the 26-digit hex key I used before. I typed this in and allowed it to save on my keychain so that I don't have to do it every time. This time it logged on, no problems.

I then when into the laptop and did the same sort of thing through network connections. Again, there were no problems logging on, but now we're finding that the laptop loses its connection every 5 minutes. This wasn't happening before. It shouldn't be due to signal problems because when it is connected it says that the signal is 'excellent'. So I can only assume it's because of the new settings, but I don't know how to do anything about it.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Encryption of any kind sllloooowwwss down wireless, but you shouldn't be getting dropped like that.

mOOndaWg?

my wireless adapter does the same thing every once in a while...it will disconnect and then automatically reconnect. Sometimes it will do it every few minutes and other times it won't do it at all. It could have to do with some type of interference. The signal strength being "excellent" is only excellent while it's connecting...it sounds like it's losing the signal but then picking it right back up.

what is the make and model of the router? we should be able to help you figure out how to set all the security settings if we know the make and model.

The ironic thing about wireless routers is that the signal can be severely broken up by the presence of large bodies of water.This can make your signal strength go up and down like a yoyo.

The fishkeepers irony. We like the net, the net likes us, but it doesnt like our fishtanks .


Its also not uncommon for antivirus programmes, service provider software and windows own wireless settings to come into conflict. One day things can be running fine, and then some nerk decides you needed an automatic update, and everything loses its settings

As for people with cb radios like taxi drivers, if one parks outside my house it risks death by shotgun

Is there anything more irritating than watching your net connection and digital tv disconnect and break up because some idiot riding past on a 50cc motorcycle thinks that taking his mufflers out significantly increases performance. It does actually , it significantly increases the standard of STATIC that the little bugger puts out.

Thats another shotgun resolvable problem.

I particularly love the fact that should your laptop or pc crash and need a vicious bit of rebooting to fix it , the first things to go will be the wireless setting. Granted thats easy enough to fix manually, but theres nothing like getting the pointless error message : your wireless connection has a problem would you like to send this error?

How? By bloody zeppelin? Maybe I can get a carrier pigeon!

Trouble is, computers are designed by humans and humans are a bit thick, and like to clock off early. I should know, I used to work for IBM. Software designers were just the worst... 2 years devt, and 2 hours testing. Just smashing. I think its called "the inbuilt flexibility of choice and breakage".

When was the last time your ps2 broke or even crashed? It generally had to be either full of liquids, catfluff or hit by a mallet. PS3 probably will rule the world. Its slightly depressing.