Wi Fi help needed

Viral · 26 Jun 2007 at 06:21

Ok guys I am new to wireless and I have just setup a D Link DI 524 router and a USB DWL-G122 wifi adaptor. I am using the router plugged straight into my internet connection which is cable. I am then using the wi fi to connect to my pc as they are in different rooms. I just want to make sure my connection is secure so I have setup a password but I guess there are extra security measures I can take?

Snapshot · 26 Jun 2007 at 07:26

You need to set up encryption on the wireless link.
Go into the wireless setup area of the router (I assume it has a web interface) and select WPA (might appear as WPA-PSK or WPA2). Then type in a pass phrase for it to use as a key.
You now need to do the same in the wireless setup on your PC. The details will vary depending on whether you're using the DLink software or Windows but you'll probably need to create a profile and set up WPA using the same pass phrase as above.

You can also set up MAC filtering so only known PCs can attach to your WLAN but this isn't really necessary.

Viral · 27 Jun 2007 at 21:25

I have setup WPA now thanks. I hope that this is good enough for online gaming.

tolien · 27 Jun 2007 at 21:43

Additionally, the passphrase should be long - up to a maximum of about 40 digits - and complex - a mixture of numbers, symbols, and upper/lower case letters.

mattbrown91 · 28 Jun 2007 at 12:29

WPA is very difficult to crack even with a very simple key

tolien · 28 Jun 2007 at 12:42

mattbrown91 said:
WPA is very difficult to crack even with a very simple key

Not if you brute force the passphrase.

Viral · 2 Jul 2007 at 23:07

My connection speed only seems to be 11Mbps even though my signal strength is excellent, is there any way to improve this as its not so great.

tolien · 2 Jul 2007 at 23:19

Tried the suggestions in your other thread here?

Tute · 3 Jul 2007 at 01:23

Excuse the hijack, just a question i've wondered for a while.

At the moment I just use MAC address filtering to keep any opportunist bandwidth thieves out - but I assume this is easy to bypass right?

I'm not really "clued up" on Wireless Security - what method of encryption is the best? And is it hard to set up?

I guess what i'm asking is, should I be using a stronger layer of security than just MAC filtering, and if so, which?

csmager · 3 Jul 2007 at 10:28

Tute said:
Excuse the hijack, just a question i've wondered for a while.

At the moment I just use MAC address filtering to keep any opportunist bandwidth thieves out - but I assume this is easy to bypass right?

Quite ridiculously so. Simple utilities just allow you to type in the MAC you want to spoof, et voila.

I'm not really "clued up" on Wireless Security - what method of encryption is the best? And is it hard to set up?

WEP is inherently insecure. WPA/WPA2 are the only decent security measures - use long passwords, as tolien mentioned above.

wij · 3 Jul 2007 at 10:32

csmager said:
Quite ridiculously so. Simple utilities just allow you to type in the MAC you want to spoof, et voila.

That is assuming that you would know what MAC you need to clone

csmager · 3 Jul 2007 at 10:36

wij said:
That is assuming that you would know what MAC you need to clone

If anyone's using it, just view the network using something like Kismet.