Securing the Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router

By Paul | Sep 10, 2007

I discussed securing your wireless network in a post titled Securing a Wireless Network. I currently have a Linksys wireless router model WRT54G. When I work from home I use this router to connect to work through VPN, and have done it with out any problems.

The big issue with wireless networks is security. As anyone with a wireless network card within a few hundred feet of your router can connect to your router. To prevent this from happening, it is important to secure your router.

Securing Your Wireless Router

Note:

If you need to reset your router back to the factory defaults, then please read How to Reset the Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router.

To secure your Linksys WRT54G wireless router, follow these steps:

  1. Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.1.1.

    2.  

    Note:

    If you have changed the IP address of your wireless router, enter that into the address bar. By default, the address is 192.168.1.1.

  2. Enter the user ID and password for your router. If you haven’t changed it, the default password is admin. We will change it later if you haven’t already changed it.
  3. You should now see the Basic Setup Web page display in your browser. Scroll down the page until you see Maximum Number of DHCP Users.

    4. This option will assign a specific number of IP address to computers. If more than this number of computers tries to connect to your router, they will not be able to.

  4. Count the number of computers that will connect to the router, and type it into the Maximum Number of DHCP Users textbox.
  5. Scroll down to the bottom of the Web page and click Save Settings. Once the settings have been saved, click Continue to return to the Web page.
  6. At the top of the Web page, click the Administration option in the menu bar.
  7. On the Management Web page, you should see two password text boxes. This is where you should change your administrative password. Type in a new secure password into both boxes. If you need help creating a secure password, please read Creating Secure Passwords.
  8. Once you have changed your password, click Save Settings at the bottom of the Web page.
  9. You may be prompted to login again, if you are then enter you new password in the password field.
  10. Navigate back to the Management Web page by clicking the Administrative option in the menu.
  11. We will now encrypt your connection to your router setup from your computer. To do this click the HTTPS checkbox next to the Access Server option.
  12. Once again, click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the Web page.

    13. You won’t get the settings saved page again because the URL in the address bar is not longer correct. Since you have changed your connection to HTTPS, it you need to specify that in the address when you connect to the router setup.

  13. In your browser, change the address to: https://192.168.1.1.

    14. If you get a security error, ignore the error and continue to the Web page.

  14. Login with your password and then click the Wireless menu option.
  15. Beside the Wireless Network Name (SSID) option, type in a name for you network connection.
  16. Click the Save Settings button and the Continue button to return to the Basic Wireless Settings page.
  17. Click the Wireless Security sub-menu option at the top of the page. This is where we will provide the most important security setting.
  18. Next to Security Mode, select WPA – Personal from the drop-down list. If you have trouble connecting to your wireless connection, you can try selecting WEP, but your connection will be much less secure. For more information about WEP and WPA please read Wireless Security: WEP and WPA.
  19. Next to WPA Algorithms, select AES. Once again if you have trouble connecting to your wireless router, select TKIP.
  20. Now you must get very creative. Specify a long WPA Shared Key with a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation. Once again, please read Creating Secure Passwords for tips on how to do this. In this case the longer the better.

    21. Make sure you write down this key somewhere, either on a piece of paper or in a text document on your computer. You will need this information when you connect to your wireless network.

  21. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the Web page, and then the Continue button.

Now you are all done securing your wireless router and network. All you need to do is connect to your network, and enter your WPA Shared Key exactly as you specified it. I won’t go into detail on how to connect to your wireless network, as I will save that for another post.

Wireless Router Security Connection Questions

Question: How come we didn’t disable the SSID broadcast? Won’t that help with securing my wireless connection?

Answer: It has been mentioned many times that disabling your SSID broadcast will help secure your network. The reality is that those who attempt to get into your wireless network will be able to easily pick up or SSID whether it is broadcasted or not.

You may also have problems connecting to your wireless router if you disable the broadcasting of your SSID. I keep it enabled.

Question: Why don’t you filter who connects to your wireless router using the MAC address by turning on MAC address filtering?

Answer: This is another tip you may see on the Internet about securing your wireless network. There are a few problems with turning on the MAC address filtering.

The first problem is that a hacker can easily spoof a MAC address, and therefore bypass the MAC filtering. The second is that you need to manage the MAC addresses of all network cards attempting to connect to your router. Since it really doesn’t provide a lot of security, it is just easier to keep it turned off.

Question: Why do you specify to use WPA – Personal first, and not WEP?

Answer: The reason is that WPA is much more secure than WEP, and therefore you should use that security mode over WEP. An experienced hacker can easily crack WEP encryption so it doesn’t provide as strong security as WPA. If you canèt use WPA, use WEP because it is still better than nothing.

Summary

This post provided step-by-step instructions on securing your Linksys WRT54G wireless router. After following the steps, you should now be confident knowing that you have a secure wireless Internet connection.

Related Posts

How to Reset the Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router
Securing a Wireless Network
Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband
Wireless Security: WEP and WPA
Creating Secure Passwords
Broadband Internet Connection - Troubleshooting

It is hard to realize that today we are talking about laptops and routers and palm computers, when yesterday we were correcting our transistors. Today cell phones dominate the world, and yesterday was the landline. The online marketing done through cpc has changed a lot too.

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23 Comments so far
  1. RUFUS CHACKO JOHN March 31, 2008 7:45 am

    Good One.. yet to try..

  2. Graham E. May 8, 2008 8:09 am

    Thanks for clearing the fog and letting me see clearly what I need to do to secure my network.

  3. computing tips June 5, 2008 11:41 pm

    nice guide

  4. Paul June 6, 2008 2:10 pm

    Thanks. Hope it helped.

  5. Derek June 13, 2008 12:57 pm

    All good information…but what if you have a teenage kid that likes to hack passwords from the computer to gain access to whatever he likes, and then can simply clear the passwords from the router by hitting the reset button and then reconfiguring it to get reconnected? I am solving the Windows password hacking problem, but what about the router? How do I disable the hard reset button?

  6. Ramon June 13, 2008 10:38 pm

    I have followed this step by step and always have a problem at #18. When it is time to change the security mode from “Disabled” to “WPA-Personal”, i click the drop down box, select the choice, yet the page always refreshes to disabled before I can save settings. I even tried selecting “WEP” and it still reverts to disabled before I can save the change. Why wont it allow me to change the security mode?

  7. Ding June 16, 2008 5:24 pm

    i found the connection to my com . but where do i enter the Wpa pass ?

  8. Paul June 17, 2008 12:55 am

    Are you talking about after you set up or network and are connecting to it through Windows?

  9. Woot June 17, 2008 5:26 am

    hi i have done all those step but when i go to my laptop i click connect noting came out

  10. Jeff June 25, 2008 1:31 am

    This was a very helpful guide, thank you

  11. Fist June 29, 2008 4:17 pm

    Question… How can I set up a welcome page to my wireless network and have people sign on? I would like something like you find at a free airport hotspot, where you receive a greeting page and you enter a little info, before you are automatically connected to the wireless network. Any ideas?
    (I use a WRT54g router.)

  12. Manu July 8, 2008 5:59 pm

    I cant get into the main scree. What is the user name and password? Is it in manual or what is the default user name and password? I have never accessed my router before. This is the fist time. Help!!

  13. Paul July 8, 2008 8:46 pm

    It should be written in the manual. You can also look up various default user names and passwords here:

    http://www.technicallyeasy.net/2008/05/default-user-id-and-password-for.html

  14. Kent Fister July 10, 2008 7:00 am

    Paul,
    I shouldn’t even be on this board. You guys are so far advanced. If I should take it some place else, tell me.
    My question relates to this scenerio… You check into a hotel. Connect to their free wireless. Upon connection a page opens on your computer that has a welcome message. It may even ask a couple of social questions. After you agree to their Terms of Service, it then allows you to use the internet, as if you were at home on your very own wireless. Well, I’d like to have such a page open when someone attempts to connect to my wireless. Is there an application to help create such an opening page? Is such a welcome page kept on my computer, or does it reside on the router, or is it on my web host server? Am I too much of a novice for you to understand what I’m seeking?
    Thanks for any guidance you may have for me.
    =Fist=

  15. Paul July 10, 2008 1:39 pm

    @Kent: Don’t worry about being a novice. I try to help those who aren’t experienced in certain areas of technology.

    As for a welcome screen, I don’t have much experience in that department. From what I have quickly read, it can be a complex operation.

    I did manage to find a free tool that can help at: http://www.publicip.net/. The problem is that you need a dedicated PC running to use it.

  16. Kent Fister July 10, 2008 2:13 pm

    Paul,
    Thanks a lot. That seems to be the issue I’ve run into, also. Think I’ll try the hosting service (GoDaddy) and see if there is a way through that server.
    Thanks again,
    =Fist=

  17. Mim September 7, 2008 2:07 pm

    Thank you so much for the information. It worked great. Now my wireless is finally secured!

    Now another question, completely different from the wireless router. Do you know how to take the music from Itunes from my old computer to my new computer saving the lists and star ratings. We do have a hard drive to download it to from my old computer.. Any help would be appreciated.

  18. Paul September 7, 2008 9:38 pm

    I believe you can find your music and playlists in your user directory in the Music folder. There should be an iTunes directory in the Music directory.

  19. Sara October 6, 2008 5:19 pm

    i have completed all the steps to secure my wireless network. How do I connect to my network and enter my WPA shared key? I can click on internet explorer and it pulls up my internet provider how page just like before I secured my network. What do I need to do?

  20. tom October 24, 2008 7:02 pm

    thanks alot.

    Worked for me.

    :)

  21. Rizwan November 8, 2008 9:35 pm

    Thanks for the instructions. :)

  22. joby November 16, 2008 8:12 am

    I have enabled https in the router, but i am not able to access it through https.
    FYI i am still able to access through http. what could be problem. Thanking you in advance.

  23. Paul November 16, 2008 4:20 pm

    If you enabled https you shouldn’t be able to access the administrative pages using http. Did you click the “Save Settings” button at the bottom before navigating to another page?

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