How to secure my wireless network?

[morland]

Hello.

I have a D-Link DIR-635 wireless Router and my setup is very simple i.e. I have broadband and have a Ethernet cable going from the cable modem to the router. The router is NOT connected to any PC/Server.

I can access the router and use the internet. However, I get a message that my network is unsecured and this concerns me even though I have firewall software installed on my 2 PC's (both of which can access the network with the setup explained above).

How can I "secure" my network? Can someone please help and guide me.

Thanks.

[rendrag]

what that message is saying is that your wireless connection is not secure. That means that anyone withing range of your wireless router can connect to your network, browse your shares and use your internet connection. It's like leaving a door to your house wide open so anyone can walk in.

in your router's interface, there should be a section called wireless security, or something similar where you can add a level of security to your wireless access. I suggest WPA2 for the best level of security.

[morland]

Hi rendrag,

Thank you for the reply... I got it solved and my network is secured. I basically did what you have suggested and that did the trick.

Regards.

[morland]

Hi all,

Though I have secured my network but there is one question that came to my mind and I'll appreciate your reply so that I can better understand things:

Since I have given the MAC Addresses of the PC's and have also set the admin password for my router, what is the purpose and advantage of setting encryption on the router when this wireless network is going to be used in home???

A related question is that wouldn't setting encryption have an overhead and thus somewhat/slightly/significantly (not sure which one is true ???) slow down the performance when using the the web?

Will appreciate your reply.

Thanks.

[redxii]

Wireless signals are broadcasted everywhere. The encryption is to keep people from outside your house from using your router and to keep data transmitted secured because again anyone will be able to pick up your traffic.

If your router is left unsecured and someone connects to it then the traffic comes from your internet connection and if used for illegal purposes you will most likely be held liable.

[morland]

Wireless signals are broadcasted everywhere. The encryption is to keep people from outside your house from using your router and to keep data transmitted secured because again anyone will be able to pick up your traffic.

If your router is left unsecured and someone connects to it then the traffic comes from your internet connection and if used for illegal purposes you will most likely be held liable.

Thanks. That explains

[weEvil]

I am using WPA with TKIP (key expires every 7200 seconds), the key is 8 digits long.

Would it degrade performance if I bumped the secuirty to WPA2 and use a longer key?

I'm looking for a good balance between security & performance.

I don't want to use WEP (easily crackable) or leave it unsecured (people can use it and drain my speed).

Suggestions?

[spacesurfer]

Let's see, wireless speeds today are in excess of 54 mbps. Internet speeds are in excess of 3 mbps or 5 mbps or may faster but certainly less than 54 mbps.

thus, for browsing the web, no you will not notice a decrease in performance because browsing is the slowest component. as for file sharing between two computers, i don't think you need to worry. If though routers can be rated at 54 mbps, you won't get that speed anyways.

If you are still concerned, best way to find out is to unsecure it, test, secure it, then test and see if you notice any difference.

Honestly, security is priority over performance for me.

[ringfinger]

Don't broadcast the SSID and use WPA2 w/ TKIP.