Network problems -- security, reliability, etc.

kj01

A couple months ago, I installed a wireless router into my home. It worked well, but recently the connection gives out. And somewhat disturbing, I opened up iTunes and under the "shared" category, the "limewire tunes" for someone else in the neighborhood was shown. I assume the connection is giving out because a foreign computer not on the network is trying to use our wireless internet. What should I do?

japan

Have you enabled encrytion? If you haven't, do it now. WEP is pretty much broken, and won't keep anyone determined out, but it will keep casual hijackers off your network. WPA is preferable, but doesn't work with the Nintendo DS (which is the reason I don't use it).

KurnDerak

First off, I think limewire is just an invasive program, and tries to intergrate through LANs and stuff. My iTunes had the same kind of limewire thing from my brother using it.

Anyway, there are several things you can do. Does your wireless router have a required password? Or you could do a MAC adress setup, where only specific MAC adresses can connect to the router. Might need someone else to explain how these are done depending on your router, not sure how similar interfaces are.

kj01

I enabled WEP security... and also changed the channel for the router. Hopefully those changes will be enough to keep others out and keep the internet stable.

necroSYS

Make sure your router is not broadcasting your SSID. That's step one in hardening your WAP. If you're advertising your SSID to everyone and their fucking brother, you're going to get wardialers.

BoomShake

changing th channel does nothing as far as security really, but it might if you disable SSID broadcasting (haven't tried it). any scanner, including the built in microsft one will find it on a different channel...channels are more for interference problems.

Anyway, enable WPA if all your stuff supports it, but if you're like japan and me with DSes, go with WEP. Change your router's SSID from default to something personal and hard to guess. Disable SSID broadcast. Set up a MAC filter (there should be a place in your router config to do it) to only allow your devices. Change router's default password if you havent already. I think I also recall a way of setting static LAN IPs for all your devices and not allow it to assign any further IPs out to any new devices, but I can't remember. By these powers combined, your router will be Captain Network. Ok, not really, but it'll be a lot better than it apparently had been.

If you give us the make/model of your particular router, we can be much more specific in directions on how to do all these things.

Feral

Anybody who is capable of breaking WEP is capable of spoofing a MAC address or finding a network without an SSID. I mean, you can do these things if you want, but they're not going to keep you any more secure.

If WEP isn't enough security for you, spend $50 to upgrade to WPA and make sure you use a strong password.

necroSYS

necroSYS wrote: »

Make sure your router is not broadcasting your SSID. That's step one in hardening your WAP. If you're advertising your SSID to everyone and their fucking brother, you're going to get wardialers.

ProTip: Step One does not imply it is the only step.