best way of securing wireless network

WillieDH

Hi

is specifying MAC address's the best way of securing your wireless network ?

Mac daddy

enable wpa or wpa 2 if your router supports it, also disable ssid broadcast, mac filtering not the strongest mac addresses can still be sniffed out..

WillieDH

this is the bit that confuses me, how do your clients (pcs) know the wep / wpa code ?

Sorry for being thick !

Mac daddy

What i do,

I configure the router to whatever type of security Wpa pre shared key for instance,

At the field for the key enter one and make sure you write it down.

Enable ssid broadcast for the moment, make sure wpa is enabled!

Start up the clients depending on the nics you have it the menu will be different - when the clients starts your will see in the systray a icon for the wireless doubleclick it - Refresh it - it should pick up the SSID - select it enter the key that you entered in the router..

Do the same for each client -

Logon onto the router disable ssid broadcast -

Reboot the clients - it should auto connect when in range now.

hshortt

There's threee steps to ensuring that you are reasonably secure at home(caveat!)

1. disable ssid broadcasts. - This stops the random passerby picking up your network.
2. Enable a security protocol (preferably wpa-radius or at least wpa-psk) - psk means pre-shared key.
3. Enable mac address filtering, and add only those addresses that you want to be able to use your network.

In doing this there is more work involved in setting up new clients but it's better to be sure than sorry. Each client will need a profile that includes the ssid and the psk. Once that's done and you've enabled the mac address of the client on the access point you will be fine.

To obtain the mac address of a network card, open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all" you will see the mac address at the bottom of the output. It's like this 00:0A:8A:00:1B

The best possible way of securing a wireless network would be to use certificates and 802.11x but for the casual home enthusiast the above steps will put you on the right track.

Oh, and don't allow anyone to know your psk or your ssid.

Also, most wireless access points are accessible over http, so you should disable this and enable https if you absolutely need to access the access point remotely. The best way would be to manually connect a cable to it and configure it this way, it's a pain in the butt, but this ensures that only those people with physical access to the access point can configure it.

Lastly, do not leave the access point at it's default settings, it's happening all to frequently now, two of my neighbours are very exposed and it's like leaving the house unlocked.

Cheerio
Howard

WillieDH

Thanks guys