I want to secure my wireless network...can anyone give pointers?

I have a linksys wireless router and have several laptops connecting to the wireless internet connection and what bothers me is that a freind of mine pulled up in my drive the other day and turned on his laptop in his car and logged on to my wireless and sent me a e mail from my driveway...saying ...ding dong!!! answer your door and bring me a cold beer!!!!! well needless to say I was a bit peaved he didnt even bring his own beer aside from logging onto my wireless without permission!!!!

I can I password my wireless connection so that who ever wants to log onto it needs a p word or is denied

regards,
Firedancer

 

Thanks Arie,

I am wondering though... all I need really is to to secure the router from anyone useing it that is walking by. What is better WEP or MAC Adressing?

FireDancer

 

WEP is fine for blocking casual users and will probably do what you want to do. It has proven a little too easy to crack to be good if you need really serious security though.

 

Newt,

what about wpa key? is that more secure and what steps do I need to go through first? I have 3 pc's here and eveytime I make settings in the router I loose the ability to go back on the net LOL. I did some reading and the general concensious is wpa and mac addressing would do the trick. what ya think?

but im not sure what steps need to be taken and in what order?

regards,
FireDancer