Finally!!!

[chriscappel]

Got my damn laptop connected to my wireless network....just wondering if anyone here has suggestions to what i should do for security and stuff....this is the first com i have owned and dont know much about them...any help will be awesome....

[sanantoniosooner]

encryption is complicated.

Just misspell everything instead.

[GottaHavePride]

encryption, whatever kind you use (64-bit, 128-bit, HEX or ASCII) just make sure you write down somewhere what it is (I use 128-bit Hex, but that's me) and what your key is. Then just make sure your router and your computer are using the same settings. Easy.

Oh, and firewalls are your friend.

[chriscappel]

haha thanks guys

[Okla-homey]

I just keep a tin foil hat over mine. It keeps the friendly electrons in and the sneaky electrons out.

[sooner_born_1960]

Tin foil? What is this? 1950?

[homerSimpsonsBrain]

Dont broadcast your ssid

[Okla-homey]

Tin foil? What is this? 1950?

Well excuuuuuuuuse me! I grew up calling the stuff tin foil like every other hillbilly born in 1960.

Besides, "tin foil" is easier and faster to say (and type) than aluminum foil.

[49r]

MAC FILTERING!!!! :mad:

and use this...

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/WPA_key/generator.php

...that is, unless you use WEP...

[chriscappel]

Dont broadcast your ssid

How do i not do this?

[chriscappel]

MAC FILTERING!!!! :mad:

and use this...

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/WPA_key/generator.php

...that is, unless you use WEP...

And this??

[49r]

Doing this stuff will depend mostly on what type of router you have, and what kind of wireless security your laptop supports.

Generally, you can configure your router by typing in http://192.168.1.1 I suspect you already know that since you have the thing up and running.

Not broadcasting your SSID is an okay idea, but it is a pain to get WinXP re-connected to your network if you drop your connection, so I usually choose to broadcast the SSID.

MAC filtering tells the Router to ONLY let your computer connect to it wirelessly. You can edit a table in your router and add MAC addresses, if you want to add more than one computer to the list of computers that can connect to your router. You can get your computer's MAC address by clicking on Start --> Run --> and in the box that comes up type cmd hit enter, and a command prompt will come up. In that window, type getmac and it will return your MAC address.

Finally, WPA (or WEP if you computer doesn't support WPA) is another way to restrict access to your wireless network. You should do this at a minimum. Use that little util I linked to above to generate a key. Copy and paste the result into a text file and use that key in both your router and in Windows when you connect to your wireless network. You will most likely only be able to use WEP, since Windows XP doesn't build WPA support by default into it's wireless networking yet (you can get WPA support, but you have to download a buncha stuff).

Here's a link to the WEP key generator.

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/WEP_key/generator.php

[homerSimpsonsBrain]

...
Not broadcasting your SSID is an okay idea, but it is a pain to get WinXP re-connected to your network if you drop your connection, so I usually choose to broadcast the SSID.
....

I've never had a problem with reconnecting and I'm using xp. Wonder if your problem is related to the router you're using. Getting the network set up correctly when you dont broadcast the ssid is more work but that was the only headache I've had.

chrischappel, the reason you'd like to avoid broadcasting your ssid is to avoid having people who dont know about your network from easily discovering it. Here's an article with some additional info...

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3576541

Note that the article also explains why not broadcasting the SSID is not a cure-all.

[oumartin]

bunch of paranoid peoples you are.

[chriscappel]

Hey thanks for the help guys....i appreciate it!!

[49r]

I've never had a problem with reconnecting and I'm using xp. Wonder if your problem is related to the router you're using. Getting the network set up correctly when you dont broadcast the ssid is more work but that was the only headache I've had.

chrischappel, the reason you'd like to avoid broadcasting your ssid is to avoid having people who dont know about your network from easily discovering it. Here's an article with some additional info...

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3576541

Note that the article also explains why not broadcasting the SSID is not a cure-all.


That's why I said it's an okay idea. IMO, enabling WEP (or WPA if you can) and using MAC filtering is a much stronger method of protection than hiding SSID. Besides, if a haxxor is leet enough to figure out my encryption key and clone my MAC address, hiding my SSID will be nothing to him.

And Joe averageuser won't be able to even try to do all that stuff, so again, hiding the SSID is pretty useless to protect myself from him.