Posted: 11/28/2004 9:06:35 AM EDT
| Hello, I just got Comcast cable internet and a wireless router to use with my centrino laptop. How do I secure the network so others can't connect to it? There are a few people close enough to me that I could pick up thier networks. Some say secure, some don't. I don't know much more than how to turn the power on! Thanks. |
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Enable WPA security if available on your router and laptop. WEP is second choice. Be sure to change the password on your router. I also change the third octet of the DHCP IP address assignment. Be sure to remember the new IP address so you can access the router later. |
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I setup networks all the time... Enable WEP/WPA, Turn on MAC Filtering, Change default DCHP starting addresses, Change PW on router, Upgrade to latest firmware, disable the SSID broadcasting, Change the SSID name to something with letters and numbers, and if you are really paranoid some routers will log all traffic such as those trying to establish a DCHP connection. You can do all of that... hurt your performance a little and still not be 100% secure. I have programs that will crack a WEP or WPA key, it will take quite a bit of time, but it can be done. -d |
All good suggestions. |
That sums it up nicely. |
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Good info. I got into War Driving for about a week, you wouldn't believe how many people just took the equipment out of the box and plugged it in without doing anything else. Driving down any given block would come up with 10 different networks, all "Linksys". |
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I live in a downtown area of a beach city in Southern Cali, when I first installed my wireless network, I could see my own network and one other person, just from the room with the router. Now if I take one of my laptops to the 3rd story, I can see 12 wireless networks, of which 10 have no security on them whatsoever. I could send netmsg's to their pc's with a little message saying that their network is unsecure and that if they want me to fix it for them to email me. =) There used to be a website that let people upload wireless network data to it, and it made maps of where wireless access was located. I think you had to have a GPS unit to upload the data though. People are so uninformed about securing their networks. -d |