Wireless Router Security

[cranebill]

What is the best way to secure access to your wireless router? I was at my GF house hooking up a wireless router this morning and when it was looking for available wireless networks to connect to, there were 3. Hers and the two neighbors (we knew this because they had their names as the name of their network). Anyway we plan on sharing some files between her multiple computers and since we were able to see other networks I am sure hers will pop up on theirs. Is there a way to limit what machines can connect to her router? It is a D-Link G router, I do not know the model number off the top of my head.

Bill

 

[cdlvj]

Set up encryption.
Reset the ip address of the router to something like 10.0.0.44
Use NAT.

Set DHCP off, and set your client ip's to like
10.0.0.45, 10.0.0.46

Your gateway would be the ip of the router in this case 10.0.0.44

Some of the elementary things that can be done.

 

[codecref]

doing NAT doesn't much security specially for file sharing (NAT is usingly for Public-IP Sharing), however encryption and MAC Address filtering is good idea but there's tools on web to crack them, so you change your key almost everyday or twice a day (even better).

hope it helps

 

[lui3]

i would disable the SSID beacon transmission on your ap. there should be a check box in the web interface. i would also make the ssid something other than the default, enable wep, setup mac address filtering, and access lists if you like. however the more security you do have the more you have to setup back up when it blows up or when others want to join your network, friends family etc. disabling the SSID beacon and wep are really good steps.

Without the SSID beacon other users cannot see your network. Also change to a channel like 1 or 11. Most ap default to 6 so being on 11 or 1 will result in less interference with other networks.

nat should be automatic if you are sharing internet


you can also password protect your files or use encryption at the file level to ensure your data is safe. xp lets you encrypt the file system as well.