BleepingComputer.com: Making My Wireless Internet Connection Secure

I have two laptops which connect to the internet via a wireless router. The connection is fine, but I notice when I 'view wireless networks' that it describes mine as an 'Unsecured Wireless Network' and that information sent might be visible to others. I would like to secure my connection, but can't work out how to do it - can anyone help?

(I have searched previous posts but couldn't find a relevant one)

Thanks

Oliver

Moderator Edit: Moved topic to more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

You can put a WPA OR WEP security on it. What router do you have and what is your wireless device?

Hi Fozzie - The wireless router is from Sitecom - WL-153 MIMO XR Wireless Network Broadband Router. The wireless device on one laptop is a PCMCIA card from Sitecom - WL-150 MIMO XR Wireless Network Cardbus Card. The other laptop has an internal wireless device from Atheros

Thanks

Oliver

oliverphillips, on Jan 29 2007, 03:02 PM, said:

2 ways of doing this, one is enale MAC address filter, on the router in the wireless section enable MAC address filtering, then enter the 2 <MAC address of the 2 laptops.
Getting the MAC address:
Click Start/run/type CMD type ipconfig in the DOS box, and get the Physical Address AKA MAC address.

The other way is as explained earlier, enable WEP/WAP key, name the network to a unique name, logging on from the laptops you will see the new named network, and will be asked to enter the key ( lphanumeric that you entered in the router config as the key.


Let us know how this workied....


919263

Thanks 919263. Yesterday I went to the my wireless router settings page and clicked on encryption, changing it from 'Disable' to 'WEP'. It had 4 Encryption keys all with '**********' entered. I left these as they were and clicked on 'Apply'. My wireless connection was then encrypted, but I couldn't access it! Should I have changed the Encryption Keys to my own password? If so should I change all 4 Encryption Keys?

I managed to connect directly to the router settings page and reset to 'Disable' so I am now back online - feeling a bit out of my depth!

Thanks a lot

Oliver

oliverphillips, on Jan 31 2007, 06:10 PM, said:

Oliver,
Please let me know what kind/make is the router?
If you enable the WEP it is good to enter a new password(Key) make it alphanumeric.
I am a little confused about there being 4 keys... can you get a screen shot of the Router page and post it here so that I can see what it is all about and be able to help you further.....

919263

http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s304/20oliver20/?action=view¤t=screenshot.png

Hope I've made the screenshot work! Have added link just in case. The router is a Sitecom Wireless Broadband Router MIMO XR WL-153

Many thanks

Oliver

Screenshot

oliverphillips, on Feb 1 2007, 05:25 PM, said:

The Link workes, but the img in the forum did not.
but I was able to see the image, that is what counts.
Looking at it, and trying to do some research on the net, the 4 keys are added protection.
This is what I am thinking, you assign different keys to different devices, and this might be for the purpose of security or managing access and audits.

Do this, as the Key 1 is set as default, change that only, note the key down and try to connect to the router using that encryption key. You can also change all the 4 keys and make them the same, and then try.
I did not see the MAC address filtering tab, maybe it is on one of the advance tabs, do that as well, as explained earlier, that would make the networeally secure. make sure you choose WEP on the laptop as well...

Let me know how it worked out.....

Thanks very much - am now connected to the internet via a secure wireless connection from both of my laptops. I did only need to change Encryption Key 1 and this has done the trick.

Many thanks

Oliver

Hi, I have the same exact router as Oliver.

I pretty much understand what I need to do if that means only enabling WEP and putting a password into Encryption Key 1.

My problem is that every password I enter comes back with the error message: Invalid key value. It should be a hexadecimal number: 0-9 or a-f

Can anyone provide me with an example please? I am lost on what this means and wikipedia didn't enlighten me much this time (

Ciao!

Decimal values are zero to 10.
Hexadecimal are 0-15 in decimal notation, but in hex notation 0-9 and a-f are used for a total of 15 possibilities, then it repeats.

So e-14, f=15, 10=16, 11=17 ... 1f=31, 20=32, 21=33 in decimal and so on.

You really don't need to know this, other than enter any bunch of numbers 0-9 and/or letters a-f.
And write it down so you won't forget. Just make it long to be safe.

I don't know your router, but let's say it permits a 20 character hex key, well, something like this should do the job 974c745a21d9f7c4eb05, and perhaps some dashes are needed, whatever.