Wireless Security?

[Glaze132]

I have an old DI-711 wireless B router made by D-Link and it seems to be doing a good job. Anyway at least two of my neighbors have wireless networks. I know I can reach there wireless networks, so if I can they have a good chance to do the same right? I have a special setting in my router that laets me choose the range addresses that can be given by DHCP right now I have it set to 100-103 for the last octet since I have 4 computers. Since it is configured this way is there a possibility of my neighbors or other people to access the network? I am not sure if someone could just make a static IP and get on or not. Hopefully you understood by what I meant by all of this thanks for the help in advance.

[JDXNC]

They could still see you. Do you have WEP enabled? Also, if you can I highly suggest you filter by MAC address, each NIC has a specific MAC address, and if you only allow those that you own, you would be fairly safe.

[Glaze132]

OK I have tried enabling wep before but it seemed to never work. What am supposed to do. Here is a screenie of that part of the router:

[tandar]

Yes, Definatly make sure that you have WEP enabled and mac address filtering. The other thing you will want to do if you havn't already is to change your SSID to something other then the default and if you have the option, turn off SSID broadcasting (i'm only familiar with cisco and linksys wireless devices currently, so i'm not sure of all the d-link options). Anyways, if you are using WEP, have mac filtering and have switched from the default SSID and turned SSID broadcasting off, you will be very secure although there are ways around all 3 if someone really wants into your network.


And yes someone can configure a static address when connecting to your network outside or inside of your dhcp range.

[Glaze132]

Yes, Definatly make sure that you have WEP enabled and mac address filtering.
I could not find any mac address filtering but I did find this table in there so it would seem that it may do the same thing as mac address filtering. And what do I do to enable wep look at post above for pic.

[tandar]

That looks like it just reserves ip addresses for specific hosts, it still won't prevent other unauthorized hosts from connecting to your network. Your router might not support some of these features.

You might also want to try upgrading the firmware if you havn't already, you mentioned it was an older device, so there might be some new features for it. This link explains how you can do that.

http://www.dlinksupport.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=816&question=di%2D711

[JDXNC]

IF you can't update the firmware but are concerned about security, you might consider buying a new router. They are quite cheap now. I bought my Belkin AP for $35 new. Supports 64bit, 128bit WEP and MAc address filtering. Pretty good deal I though.

Edit:

I don't know what are in your other settings in your control panel, but you don't see anything that looks remotely like this?: (BTW.. now that peeps know my MAC addresses, gimme access to your connections :D)

[Glaze132]

That looks like it just reserves ip addresses for specific hosts, it still won't prevent other unauthorized hosts from connecting to your network. Your router might not support some of these features.

You might also want to try upgrading the firmware if you havn't already, you mentioned it was an older device, so there might be some new features for it. This link explains how you can do that.

http://www.dlinksupport.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=816&question=di%2D711
I should have reported back sooner. I do now have 128-bit security and the three desktops do work, and I am now static rather than DHCP and went for different IP schemes. Now all of the computers are basically working except the laptop. I am not sure why it does not work most of the time. It only works right after I redo the WAP settings and change the IP scheme from 192.168.xxx.102. Then after I have used the internet or intranet continuously for about 1-2 hours the internet and intranet fail. This wireless card has the intersil prism 1 chipset I think. It seems to be a very buggy chipset. The DWL-520 has the same chipset and it does the same thing but I fixed that by wiring one of the computers since it sits right next to the WAP, and took its Linksys WUSB11 nic. Does anyone know of any good drivers for the prism 1 chipset? Thanks for the help thus far.

Edit: I forgot to mention the firmware is fully updated. I read a bunch of their documentation and they stopped supporting my wap in 2001 and that they didn't have any plans for adding in MAC address filtering.