Securing a wireless network.

[Penel]

I am curious how would you be able to secure your home wireless network from any outside users or anyone trying to tap into the radio frequncies and getting any information through that process?

[Slackfumasta]

The most common way is to use WEP (Wired Equivalency Protection or something like that).

Basically, in the Wireless section of your router setup, there will be a section for WEP. You can probably choose 40 bit, 64 bit, or 128 bit encryption, some even go up to 256 bit.

You then give it a 'key'; it's basically a phrase that the computer puts into an algorithm to encrypt your data, and your PC (or PCs) use the same phrase (key) to decrypt the data on the other end.

Linksys routers, and others I'm sure, allow you to enter a 'passphrase', and then the router will convert it to hexadecimal and use it as a key. 128 bit passphrases must be 13 characters long, which will in turn create a hexadecimal key that is 26 characters long.

So, you tell your router to use WEP, give it a passphrase, and then go to your PC, into the wireless network configuration, and give it the same information. If you are using Windows to manage your wireless network, you will have to enter the 26 digit hexadecimal key that your router generated.

There are other methods of securing a wireless network, but that is the most common. WEP keys can be sniffed by somebody with the right software (free and easily available over the Internet) and a bunch of free time, but I don't believe it's very common for that to happen to home users.

[Know Nuttin]

You should use WPA instead of WEP. much more secure

the usual stuff:

disable ssid broadcasting.
change default ip of router
use mac address filtering
limit amount of connections to only what is needed
change default ssid
change default password

[Penel]

Thanks alot for the information guys.