Internet Range

Why worry - just set the security on your router to a high enough level. Then only authorized computers can connect anyway...

-J

He might be someplace that he'd rather the government didn't have access. They might have a Homeland Security administration, maybe even by Bushies.

A bird in hand is worth all the Bushies in the world.

RichH

WEP - Wireless Encryption Protocol.

Set the Key on the settings in your router and then add the same Key to your wireless card tcp/ip properties.

You can also add an SSID (Service Set Identifier) to your router. These two methods will not limit the range that the wireless frequency will travel but will limit users from getting a connection with out the passwords.

WEP can be broken in as little as 2 minutes with software freely available on the internet. Use WPA/WPA2 if available it takes a little longer to crack it.

SSID has nothing to do with securing a wireless router and recommending it as such is just wrong!

You can also use MAC filtering but this will only stop the accidental connections as it can be circumvented with minimal effort.

Cover your house with copper foil. Your wife might not like that since the neighbors are sure to gawk.

Related question:

Has anyone been know to have had their computer attacked/broken into ect. via their own router?? My question is, even though someone can access the net via my router, do they automaticly get access to my computer?

I don't think that anyone has ever successfully hacked into my computer through my own router. People have connected to my router before, but never more than that really.

If they are clever enough, sure they could access your computer, but obviously only if you are connected to the same router with either wired or wireless. If they can connect to the internet from that wireless router, and even if you are connected via the wired ethernet, (if your router has a 4 port switch (for example like my linksys wrt54g)), they might be able to see your computer just through "my network places". If you have files and folders shared there is no doubt that they could easily mess with your stuff.

In fact, if you have a printer shared on the network (which most people do) they could actually start printing stuff on your printer. I had a friend that would print stuff on peoples printers saying "YOUR NETWORK IS NOT SECURE, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY FIX THAT BEFORE SOMEONE MESSES UP YOUR COMPUTER". I think that's just hilarious.

Nick

Nick,

Printing on someone's printer ... that's a great prank. Humm? Why not print out an invoice and see what happens.

Greg

Ooooo... That's a good one... I like it!

Make sure it has the persons correct name and address on there... or maybe their child's name on the shipping address LOL that's great. Make it an invoice for like a 96" plasma tv, something that's so absurdly nonexistent. Must think of something else...

Thanks for the idea!

Nick

Don't use WEP unless its your only choice. Consider change hardware or update driver/firmware to support WPA. As long as you use 64bit random key, its as safe as you can get.

Router has its own firewall. Make sure you change the admin password. Everyone and their dog know the default password. They can login, change setting and even lock you out. For computer, turn on firewall. That'll make sure whoever hack into your router need to hack into your computer also.

Then unless you got something very valuable stored in your home computer and someone is targeting you, you don't need to worry. People don't waste their time for nothing. Keep basic security on and don't make it easy.

Pineapple

If I had my router open to "public" use, why would some one lock me out? Once I could no longer get in, wouldn't I unplug it? Then where would that put the hacker??

What would they gain from locking me out? Nothing, they would loose the ability to access the internet, so I don't think they would.

I have unlimited min. on my service, so I didn't bother to password my router, it's been over a year now, and nobody has gotten into my computer or messed with my router, I think password protecting your router is just a waiste of time.

Hi All,

I installed my access point in the basement of my house, even though I use the laptop on the ground level.

There are a couple reasons to limit or confine access to your AP. In the worst case scenerio, one could place their AP on the top of their house, and blanket the neighbourhood. If everyone did the same, the overall performance of each connection is reduced because of the interference. Another symptom of too much coverage is that the AP has to change modulation schemes in order to support the weakest link. So, if you use 802.11b, and someone several streets over associates with your wifi AP, the AP will negotiate a bit rate that works for everybody ... likely the lowest possible bitrate of 1 MB/s.

What should you do?

- if you can, install the AP in the basement. I did, and my house is completely covered.

- deselect the lower bit rate connections. This doesn't exactly address your question, but it will prevent your in-house connection to drop to a lower speed by preventing someone several streets over from connecting to you.

- while not an option on my AP, some can be set to a specific power level. If you have this option, turn off the lower bit rates, and reduce the power level until you are certain that your wifi link works everywhere you need it to work.

- use an AP with two receive antennas. This provides receive gain on your AP, which is good for your laptop. The AP still only transmits on one antenna.

- and finally, don't broadcast SSID, and do configure WPA. Only you should know your AP exists.

Regards,

Greg

PS: There are other details like "Data Beacon Rate", "RTS Threshold", and "Beacon Interval" in my AP... I'm not sure what these control, but perhaps someone here might care to share what they know about them?

oops ... the datarates should be in Mb/s