How do i get a password on my wireless

[Pretorian]

I got wireless maybe a month ago, and vista doesn't seem to want to use that wireless card thingy it came with, but anyway i used its direct connect cord thing, so now it works fine. But the thing is, i don't know how to put a password on it, so anyone around my house is able to access it and, my usage is shooting right up. Maybe someones using it? haha. Anyone know how to put a password on it

[TheMatt]

Hi,

Are you saying you are using a wired connection and not using the wireless at all?

If so, then the easiest option is to just disable the wireless on the router. This will turn of wireless internet access altogether.

[Pretorian]

Na, the other people in my house use the wireless wirelessly

[johnwill]

Let's see if I understand. You want to lock all the people that are using the network out so you get better performance? Don't you think someone's going to notice?

[skuz]

Passwording wireless connections is essential! Otherwise everyone in your neighbourhood will hitch a free ride at your expense. At my old place there were 4-5 unsecured wireless connections in my street so I logged onto them, opened up the router control panel and changed the SSID to 'STEAL ME'. Idiots :P

Anyways, its pretty simple. Open up your web browser, point it to 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.0.1. One of those is likely to work and if not go to connection status and find out your default gateway. Once in the router look for 'wireless security' and the rest is pretty straightforward. Make sure you use strong encryption such as WPA or 128 bit WEP (not 64, its too easy to hack) and then enter the password on each of the computers connecting wirelessly.

Good luck :)

[johnwill]

Perhaps I misread this, I thought he was blocking out people in his house! Obviously, it's a good idea to enable encryption to stop freeloaders!

[TheMatt]

What brand router do you have? MAC address filtering + 128-bit WEP encryption is a good combo. It is pretty simple to setup as well.

[Pretorian]

thanks skuz, great help, i am a few steps closer to getting a password on except.... i can't remember my username and password... but its quite late here, so i'll do it later

[johnwill]

FWIW, the only security that's really secure is WPA or WPA2. While WEP is better than nothing, it's not all that secure. Thare are multiple simple WEP cracking applications around, so you don't have to be much of a hacker to bypass WEP. MAC filtering and SSID hiding actually just make your network harder to access, they do little to keep someone out.

For your reading pleasure. The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless LAN.

[kinbard]

For your reading pleasure. The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless LAN.[/quote]

I just read it. Good info. I never thought about probe and assocaition request/response as far as SSID hiding is concerned. If you stop and think about it, it makes sense, or more to the point no sense, in hiding SSID. But doesn't WPA2 require a RADIUS server? Or am I confusing it with something else? My wireless networking experience is in the novice stage at this point.

[johnwill]

No, WPA and WPA2 run in multiple modes, the PSK (Pre-Shared Key) is setup similar to WEP and requires nothing extra.

[kinbard]

I forgot about shared keys. Thanx.