Wireless Networking!

[emily1982]

I've had such a day....purchased a laptop off ebay and i've already got a wired network with 2 pc's, but wanted to make the laptop wireless!Simple so i thought....so about 8 hours later (and nearly a murder or a modem) and phone call to telewest to explain how i managed to knock the whole internet off for the house...i manage to finally get the wireless network going! YAY

But now i'm stuck...how do i make the network safe so the whole street doesn't decide to pick it up...can anyone offer any advice?......Thanks

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

I've had such a day....purchased a laptop off ebay and i've already got a wired network with 2 pc's, but wanted to make the laptop wireless!Simple so i thought....so about 8 hours later (and nearly a murder or a modem) and phone call to telewest to explain how i managed to knock the whole internet off for the house...i manage to finally get the wireless network going! YAY

But now i'm stuck...how do i make the network safe so the whole street doesn't decide to pick it up...can anyone offer any advice?......Thanks

I'd love to know how its done as well. I've had mine "wireless" for a year now and never been able to encrypt it. Everytime I tried the whole system locked out and I had to reset the modem to it's defaults. However, the so called 30 metre range within the house is a bit of a myth. The walls in my house seem to filter the signal quite well, so you literally have to be standing outside the house the pick up the signal. So far, nobody else has attempted to connect to mine.

It might be worth you taking your laptop outside and testing the range of yours.

 

[AlanUK]

In the security section of your wireless modem/router you should have the ability to only allow authorised connections by MAC address (the hardware address of your network card) simply find out the address by typing "ipconfig /all" at your DOS prompt and you should see an entry that looks like 2D:00:1E:00:00 which is the text you need to enter.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

But now i'm stuck...how do i make the network safe so the whole street doesn't decide to pick it up...can anyone offer any advice?......Thanks

Wireless networking can be about the most fiddly thing to sort out if it doesnt work straight away....however, security is paramount, as the bloke who lives very near to me that I can use his connection doesnt know !

Your best bet is to introduce your security measures is one at a time, rather than all at once, but basicaly you need to :

1. Find out your mac address on the laptop, bring up a command prompt on the laptop (start-run type CMD, press enter, then type IPCONFIG /ALL and enter again. You will see your mac address, which will be a series of Hex double digits looking something like 00:35:44:2AA:33 . Make a note of them then go into your routers config screens and look for the wireless restricitons, you want to ONLY allow it to accept connections from designated MAC address', and you will have to enter the number you just got from the lapper. Reboot the lapper and check it still connects.

2. Hide your SSID, usualy a simple tick box. Again reboot lapper and check you can still connect.

3. Force a WEP security setting, at least 128bit. You will need a common "key" which will be a series of ascii characters about 13 characters long, or a hex based hey. Make a note of the key as you will be required to enter it on your laptop. Then reboot again and check you can still connect.

Part 3 is probably the most tricky to get working, but if you can get at least one of the others (in particular part 1) working, it will be semi-safe until you can get someone round who knows what they are doing to help you.

 

[emily1982]

Thanks for the quick replies...I've managed to get the laptop's ip address...but can't seem to find the rooter's config screen! there maybe a computer hanging out the window in a minute!

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Thanks for the quick replies...I've managed to get the laptop's ip address...but can't seem to find the rooter's config screen! there maybe a computer hanging out the window in a minute!

If you let me know the make and model of the router, Ill download the manual and provide more detailed instructions.

By the way, its the MAC address you need, not the IP.

 

[emily1982]

hi

It's a belkin wireless G rooter F5D7230uk4

Thanks!

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

3. Force a WEP security setting, at least 128bit. You will need a common "key" which will be a series of ascii characters about 13 characters long, or a hex based hey. Make a note of the key as you will be required to enter it on your laptop. Then reboot again and check you can still connect.

Part 3 is probably the most tricky to get working, but if you can get at least one of the others (in particular part 1) working, it will be semi-safe until you can get someone round who knows what they are doing to help you.

Yep! Part 3 was always the bit that I could never get to work!

 

[emily1982]

it's part 2 im stuck on!

 

[Tron[ADS]]

it's part 2 im stuck on!

Not all routers can hide the SSID, ill see if I can find the manual tomorrow....its late right now