sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories wireless laptop

I just broke down and bought a wireless card for my old shiba laptop, it works great....

Verizon is offering a 4 port dsl modem/wireless router with all new signups......

MY QUESTION IS THIS.....what is preventing my next door neighbor or anybody sitting outside and using my network.....HOW DO YOU SECURE A WIRELESS SETUP......

Thank you......Mitch

You need to fire up the (web key), should have come with the router. Look in your setup guide you should spot it, it's what gives your encryption.

actually it's wep key or the more secure wpa if your router supports it.

even tho you setup the encryption, note that it can still be broken if they have the know how (and can capture enough wireless packets)!

ooops thats what i meant to say (wep key)

i knew you knewthat.. %-*

Mitch,

You can also use the MAC addresses from the computers on your wlan it gives you a little tighter security.

------------------
One stop Voice and Data Solutions VoIP

Also turn off the broadcasting of the wireless network ID or "SSID". Then the only machines that will see it will be the ones looking specifically for that network name. Use WPA and also MAC filter as stated before for added security. Your network can always be hacked. By taking these steps, you can prevent most stuff because a hacker is not going to take the 15-30 minutes needed to break your stuff when he can get into your neighbors right away.

Mitch, If you accept the wireless router from Verizon, make sure that you have Microsoft SP2 installed on your systems so you can enable what is know as WPA-PSK. This encrypts the data and allows only people with your key to access the network. Also another decent feature is MAC address filtering. 99.9% of all wireless routers support it, the only thing is how to set it up. If you have any questions, just let me know.