Wireless Security Configuration
More & more people everyday are switching over to wireless know-how. They are using it at home & at work to be able to connect to the web without having the hard work of being connected with a hard line Ethernet cable. There's plenty of advantages to doing this. With the power of laptops getting better everyday & increasingly requirements for being mobile, it is a ideal solution. The issue is, plenty of people set up their router at home & connect without any security enabled.
Without the proper protection on your network you can open yourself up to plenty of hazards. The worst outcome being a hacker getting in to your personal computer & stealing your information & possibly your identity. It is essential to have proper protection in the event you are using wireless.
First things first, they must alter the SSID & set a powerful password for wireless. In the event you have over 20+ characters there is no way anyone can break in to it by brute force. It would take them in upwards of a few billion years at 60 passwords a second 24/7/365.
Ok, so you bought a Linksys 54G wireless router & are prepared to put in it. You have no idea how to configure it & found that it works by connecting it. You scan for obtainable wireless networks & see "linksys" SSID & it is open. You connect & have web. Great, you are done & everything works. Wrong, in the event you can connect without a password, so can anyone else in the area.
Next, to alter the wireless settings. At the top of the home page there's a few menu buttons. Look for the called Wireless & click on it. There ought to be or tabs in the wireless group. Basic Settings is the first. Here is where you set your SSID. Pick something you will recognize but not give away any information such as "CHome". You can alter the channel it is broadcasting on here is there's a bunch of other access points using the same channel but you ought to be ok with channel 6. Finally, have the broadcast SSID radio button chosen then hit save.
To connect to your router to manage it they must find out the default address. You can either look in the documentation it came with or find out for yourself. To do this go to the command line by going to your start menu & opening the Run command. In the provided line type cmd; this will open a command line. In the command line type ipconfig. This will show you lines for each adapter. They have an interest in the line that says Default Gateway. In the event you have a Linksys router it ought to be 192.168.1.1. Now they take that address whatever it may be & type it in to your web browser URL line. When you hit Go a username & password box will show up. The default will be in your documentation but it is mostly Username: admin Password: admin. When you get in you will be brought to a home screen. For now all they would like to alter is the time zone setting towards the bottom & then hit the save settings button. The router will save & bring you back to the home page.
That is it. It may look complicated but in the event you follow this step by step you ought to be able to configure your wireless in less than 15 minutes & never must worry about someone breaking in to your network.
After the page comes back go to the Security page under Wireless, & you will notice a few more choice areas. Under the security mode drop down select WPA Personal (PSK). PSK stands for Pre-Shared Key which will be your password to connect to the wireless. , do not pick WEP, it is outdated & can be broken in to within 30 by anyone with half a brain. Finally, pick your pre-shared key. For the best security make it at least 15 characters. It won't be hidden so in the event you forget it you can always log in to your router & see what it is. Have a combination of numbers, letters, capitalized letters, & special characters for the strongest password. After you save the settings on this page you are done setting up your secure wireless access point.
last thing you require to do before you leave the router is alter the default admin password. This can be found under the administration tab at the top of the page on the Management page. The password is the first box called Router Password. Alter this to something you can keep in mind but difficult. In the event you lose this password you won't be able to get in to your router without resetting it & having to start all over.
Without the proper protection on your network you can open yourself up to plenty of hazards. The worst outcome being a hacker getting in to your personal computer & stealing your information & possibly your identity. It is essential to have proper protection in the event you are using wireless.
First things first, they must alter the SSID & set a powerful password for wireless. In the event you have over 20+ characters there is no way anyone can break in to it by brute force. It would take them in upwards of a few billion years at 60 passwords a second 24/7/365.
Ok, so you bought a Linksys 54G wireless router & are prepared to put in it. You have no idea how to configure it & found that it works by connecting it. You scan for obtainable wireless networks & see "linksys" SSID & it is open. You connect & have web. Great, you are done & everything works. Wrong, in the event you can connect without a password, so can anyone else in the area.
Next, to alter the wireless settings. At the top of the home page there's a few menu buttons. Look for the called Wireless & click on it. There ought to be or tabs in the wireless group. Basic Settings is the first. Here is where you set your SSID. Pick something you will recognize but not give away any information such as "CHome". You can alter the channel it is broadcasting on here is there's a bunch of other access points using the same channel but you ought to be ok with channel 6. Finally, have the broadcast SSID radio button chosen then hit save.
To connect to your router to manage it they must find out the default address. You can either look in the documentation it came with or find out for yourself. To do this go to the command line by going to your start menu & opening the Run command. In the provided line type cmd; this will open a command line. In the command line type ipconfig. This will show you lines for each adapter. They have an interest in the line that says Default Gateway. In the event you have a Linksys router it ought to be 192.168.1.1. Now they take that address whatever it may be & type it in to your web browser URL line. When you hit Go a username & password box will show up. The default will be in your documentation but it is mostly Username: admin Password: admin. When you get in you will be brought to a home screen. For now all they would like to alter is the time zone setting towards the bottom & then hit the save settings button. The router will save & bring you back to the home page.
That is it. It may look complicated but in the event you follow this step by step you ought to be able to configure your wireless in less than 15 minutes & never must worry about someone breaking in to your network.
After the page comes back go to the Security page under Wireless, & you will notice a few more choice areas. Under the security mode drop down select WPA Personal (PSK). PSK stands for Pre-Shared Key which will be your password to connect to the wireless. , do not pick WEP, it is outdated & can be broken in to within 30 by anyone with half a brain. Finally, pick your pre-shared key. For the best security make it at least 15 characters. It won't be hidden so in the event you forget it you can always log in to your router & see what it is. Have a combination of numbers, letters, capitalized letters, & special characters for the strongest password. After you save the settings on this page you are done setting up your secure wireless access point.
last thing you require to do before you leave the router is alter the default admin password. This can be found under the administration tab at the top of the page on the Management page. The password is the first box called Router Password. Alter this to something you can keep in mind but difficult. In the event you lose this password you won't be able to get in to your router without resetting it & having to start all over.
