How to secure my wireless network properly (I'm being piggybacked)

Darkst4r · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:06

Hi, I got a new Virgin Superhub the other day with a 30 meg wireless connection.

After downloading "who is on my wifi" I have noticed 2 unknown computers using my service.

My question is how can I secure my network properly so these gits cant use my bandwidth ?

I'm sharing my wireless network with 2 iphones and 1 other computer apart from my own.

Is there some kind of software I could use or a type of encryption to make it more difficult for people to piggy back me ?

Thanks in advance

Rizo-UK · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:08

You have security enabled already? Wpa-psk2?

eggcup · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:11

All the info you need you need is written on the back of the superhub

edit: i think i read this wrong

Dist · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:12

Make sure you are using WPA2, that is the most secure method of encryption for home networks. Make sure you use a long pass (I would say at least 12 chracters), using letters (upper and lower case), number and maybe even symbols if you like.

Darkst4r · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:14

I've managed to work out what one of them was, my mate left his PC on next door so I disabled the adapter and deduced that was him. Still have one outstanding unknown connection though that is reading as connected.

Could it be his iphone even though he's out showing up ?

I'm not sure what security is already in place.

Gonna have a butchers at the back of the hub now...

Darkst4r · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:14

Dist said:
Make sure you are using WPA2, that is the most secure method of encryption for home networks. Make sure you use a long pass (I would say at least 12 chracters), using letters (upper and lower case), number and maybe even symbols if you like.

Sorry for being a networking noob but how do I do these steps ?

Darkst4r · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:20

Nevermind I've figured it out ! The unknown connection was actually the router itself as the MAC number matched the connection ID.

Feel a bit silly now but at least I can stop being paranoid !

Cheers guys

Dist · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:20

It should be the same superhub that I use, so try and follow these steps

Connect to the config page (192.168.100.1)
Login
Big button on the left "Wireless Network Settings"
Security mode: WPA2-PSK[AES]
Set the SSID to whatever you want the wireless network to be called
Type in a good passphrase (you could use https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm to generate a good pass, they are a little to long to type easily of phones so just copy a random portion out of the 3rd box on the grc website, or just randomly make up your own pass, just no using real words and make sure you have numbers and letters (upper and lower case).

Edit:

Darkst4r said:
Nevermind I've figured it out ! The unknown connection was actually the router itself as the MAC number matched the connection ID.

Feel a bit silly now but at least I can stop being paranoid !

Cheers guys

Even if you don't have people breaking into your network, I still encourage you to use WPA2-PSK, the only reason you wouldn't want to use it is if you need to use some realy old Wi-Fi devices, such as a Wii. Glad you got it sorted though.

Darkst4r · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:26

Dist said:
It should be the same superhub that I use, so try and follow these steps

Connect to the config page (192.168.100.1)
Login
Big button on the left "Wireless Network Settings"
Security mode: WPA2-PSK[AES]
Set the SSID to whatever you want the wireless network to be called
Type in a good passphrase (you could use https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm to generate a good pass, they are a little to long to type easily of phones so just copy a random portion out of the 3rd box on the grc website, or just randomly make up your own pass, just no using real words and make sure you have numbers and letters (upper and lower case).

Edit:

Even if you don't have people breaking into your network, I still encourage you to use WPA2-PSK, the only reason you wouldn't want to use it is if you need to use some realy old Wi-Fi devices, such as a Wii. Glad you got it sorted though.

Thanks a lot for this. I'm going to take a look now and set it up properly.

Darkst4r · 3 Sep 2011 at 21:42

All done. It was set to crappy WEP as default so I changed it to what you recommended so hopefully I'm fairly secure now. Thanks a lot.

rarryawn · 4 Sep 2011 at 18:39

WEP! Now that is impressive! Anything under WPA2 is asking for freeloaders

lewism · 4 Sep 2011 at 20:38

Lock down your mac addresses if you want that extra level of security.

tntcoder · 4 Sep 2011 at 20:41

lewism said:
Lock down your mac addresses if you want that extra level of security.

Obscurity, not security.

Dist · 4 Sep 2011 at 20:53

lewism said:
Lock down your mac addresses if you want that extra level of security.

MAC address filtering wont do anything. It takes 10 seconds to change your MAC address, if someone can break whatever encryption method is used an extra 10 seconds is nothing.