[bk39]

I am a novice with computers.
I am getting a router because I am getting a new computer and keeping the old.
Someone said I would need special security for the wireless router.
What do I need to be safe?

[Scleros]

Someone said I would need special security for the wireless router.
What do I need to be safe?

There's nothing particularly special needed. All that is required is to properly configure the security features built into most wireless routers. Out of the box, wireless routers typically do not have any security features enabled. Consequently, anyone within wireless range of the router can connect to it, use your Internet connection, attempt to access any computers on your network, or eavesdrop on your computers' wireless transmissions. To prevent all of these undesirable occurrences, security features are enabled on the router so that only your computers can connect to it and once a connection has been made, it is encrypted so that eavesdropping is not possible.

The first security suite to be used was WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy. This method is now considered insecure as there are freely available tools to hack WEP connections in a matter of minutes. The successor to WEP was WPA - Wi-Fi Protected Access which has since been succeeded by WPA2. The differences between the suites are the specific protocols and encryption methodologies and strengths used.

For home based routers, configuring WPA/WPA2 Personal (Pre-Shared Key) mode is the most secure. The router will be configured with an SSID - Service set identifier to identify the wireless network. Then either WPA/WPA2 Personal mode will be configured. A choice of encryption strength (more bits = stronger) may be offered depending on what the router supports. Finally, a passphrase will be entered that is used to generate the cryptographic keys used to encrypt and secure the wireless transmissions. This passphrase should be of sentence length and consist of a mix of letters, numbers, upper and lower case characters, and non-alphanumeric characters (such as ~!@#$%, which is what many folks have uttered while attempting to get their wireless configured). Once the router is configured, the wireless network adapters of the computers are configured with matching configuration settings as used on the router.

The router may have other options for things such as radio channel, SSID broadcasting, or MAC address filtering. See the router documentation for a description of these settings as they are useful in some applications, however use of these settings does not provide for security. Wireless access to the router's web-based administrative interface should be disabled if given the option. Also, the username/password combination needed to access the interface should be changed from the factory default.

[Andrew Carstens]

Get the linksys wireless-G its grate and very easy to set up and has grate securety any one can do it

[ilovega864]

You need a secure network becaulse if it had wi-fi then people can sit in there car and use your internet without you knowing it.