Wireless Security

I have installed a D-Link wireless router to connect to my DSL modem and give access to the Internet from anywhere in the house. It works well. I don't know much about wireless connections, but I assume that without security measures, anyone in radio range could make use of my internet connection. I tried to implement low-level measures by enabling WEP on the router. The router has two levels, and on the lower level, requires a WEP key of 10 alpha-numeric characters. I entered what seemed like a good string of characters, and it cut me off at 10, so all seemed well. I then went to the wireless network connection options in Windows XP and found a box where I could activate WEP. I entered into the two boxes the same string of 10 characters as I had put into the router as the key, but when I applied the new settings, I received an error message telling me I had to enter 10 hex characters. As I had just done that, I didn't know what to do next. I found that the XP boxes actually allowed me to enter more than 10 characters - it didn't cut off at 10 like the router.

I don't really understand enough about wireless to be confident in what I'm doing, but it seemed obvious that all I had to do was implement WEP on the router and laptop, and all would be well. It doesn't work, and I'm stumped. Any help greatly appreciated, along with any other comments on security of wireless connections.

Thanks.

Alistair

 

Hi Alistair

How far are the closest people living near you? If you live in an apartment then I would implement WEP but if you live in a community where your neighbor is more then 50 feet from you, then I would not worry about it

There are numerous ways to secure it and the D-Link website or the manual may be better assistance to you. One of the easiest and less frustrating then the WEP is MAC filtering. I have this option on my Linksys wireless and works quite well. The ten character key you were referring to is maybe the passphrase that identifies "your" wireless world. This would need to be the same on the card and there should be an option on the card to make it a peer to peer or access point...choose the access point.

The purpose of WEP is to create a passphrase which will then create these long strings of characters that are generated after specifying the phrase. There could be one to four based on what you have set as to the depth of security.

Double-check your settings and other options that you have for the D-Link and let me know to see if I can provide any additional assistance

Good Luck