How do I disable wireless and use ONLY firewall on my router? [moved from Gen Sec]

jeber · 10-01-2008, 11:23 AM

I have a netgear 54mbps wireless router with firewall, but don't want a wireless network since I have only one computer. I would like to disable the wireless options altogether and use ONLY the firewall. How do I do this?

I assume that once I'm not broadcasting anything from my router, it will be impossible to hack into it from a remote location, except of course through the internet, which, in turn, the firewall should take care of, correct?

In other words, am I making my system more vulnerable by using a wireless modem (with the wireless options turned off) with my firewall, or would it still be better to use only a hardware firewall? The problem is that all the stand alone firewalls I saw were more expensive than what I got with the wireless modem. Thanks.

dai · 10-01-2008, 11:59 AM

i only use a router firewall
you should be able to disable wireless in the router setup

jeber · 10-01-2008, 04:37 PM

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, but I'm not computer savvy and have never set up a wireless network. Therefore, I have no idea what I'm looking for; I don't know what WAN, SSID, WLAN, or any of that means! What should I be looking for during the router setup? I don't want to think that I disabled it without really having done so. I remember setting it up once before and having to call support to show me where to go to disable it. I remember it was not something obvious like "disable wireless broadcast."

grue155 · 10-01-2008, 06:19 PM

Checking the netgear.com web site, and eyeballing the manual for the wgr614 wireless-g router (which I am presuming is typical of how Netgear goes about doing things), the way to disable the wireless functionality is to to login to the router, navigate to the Advanced Wireless Settings page, and clear the checkbox for "Enable Wireless Router Radio".

Quote:

I assume that once I'm not broadcasting anything from my router, it will be impossible to hack into it from a remote location, except of course through the internet, which, in turn, the firewall should take care of, correct?

Yes, you are correct. With wireless turned off, only somebody trying to come thru on the Internet would be a problem. And the router firewall will properly block those attempts.

Note that it is still a good idea to have a software firewall, to monitor any outbound connections from your machine to the Internet. The router firewall does not monitor web or email content, and that is very often a way for malware to get into your machine. The local machine software firewall would keep such malware from phoning home.

10-01-2008, 11:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
jeber Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 5 OS: xp prof sp2	How do I disable wireless and use ONLY firewall on my router? [moved from Gen Sec] I have a netgear 54mbps wireless router with firewall, but don't want a wireless network since I have only one computer. I would like to disable the wireless options altogether and use ONLY the firewall. How do I do this? I assume that once I'm not broadcasting anything from my router, it will be impossible to hack into it from a remote location, except of course through the internet, which, in turn, the firewall should take care of, correct? In other words, am I making my system more vulnerable by using a wireless modem (with the wireless options turned off) with my firewall, or would it still be better to use only a hardware firewall? The problem is that all the stand alone firewalls I saw were more expensive than what I got with the wireless modem. Thanks.

10-01-2008, 11:59 AM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,646 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: How do I disable wireless and use ONLY firewall on my router? i only use a router firewall you should be able to disable wireless in the router setup __________________

10-01-2008, 04:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
jeber Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 5 OS: xp prof sp2	Re: How do I disable wireless and use ONLY firewall on my router? Thanks for the reply. Sorry, but I'm not computer savvy and have never set up a wireless network. Therefore, I have no idea what I'm looking for; I don't know what WAN, SSID, WLAN, or any of that means! What should I be looking for during the router setup? I don't want to think that I disabled it without really having done so. I remember setting it up once before and having to call support to show me where to go to disable it. I remember it was not something obvious like "disable wireless broadcast."