To prevent someone from accessing your wireless router, it is important to properly secure it. By default, wireless routers aren’t sold with security enabled, to allow you to easily connect to them. The steps outlined in this article pertain to the D-Link WBR-1310 wireless router.

Steps to Secure the D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless Router

To secure your D-Link WBR-1310 wireless router, you can use the following steps:

1. Log in to your router’s Web-based configuration pages by opening your browser and navigating to http://192.168.0.1.
2. At the login screen, enter the user name and password. If you haven’t changed these settings, the default user name is “admin” (without the quotes), and the password should be left blank.
4. Click the “Log In” button to continue.


D-Link WBR-1310 - Login
(Click to enlarge)

5. In the top menu, click the “Tools” option. The “Administrator Settings” page should now be displayed.
6. There are two accounts that need to be changed – an administrator and a user. To change both accounts, use the following steps:
   1. Enter a new login name for each account by entering a new name beside the “Login name” fields. Use a different name for each account.
   2. Enter a new password for the account in the “New Password” field. Use a different password for each account.
7. Near the top of the page, click the “Save Settings” button.


D-Link WBR-1310 - Change User ID and Password
(Click to enlarge)

8. In the top menu, click the “Setup” option. The “Internet Connection” page should be displayed.
9. On the left side of the Web page, click the “Wireless” option. The “Wireless Network” page will be displayed.Enter a name for your wireless network in the “Wireless Network Name” field.
10. Under the “Wireless Security Mode” section, select one of the following:
    1. Enable WPA2 Wireless Security (enhanced)
    2. Enable WPA-Personal Wireless Security (enhanced)
    3. Enable WPA-Auto Wireless Security (enhanced)

    If you experience a problem with one of the security mode options, try the next one in the above list.

11. Beside “Cipher Type”, select “AES”.
12. Beside “PSK / EAP”, select “PSK.
13. Enter a passphrase in the “Passphrase” field. Ensure it is long (at least 10 characters). The longer the better.

    For an explanation of why it should be long, please read Size Does Matter…at Least for Passwords.

14. Near the top of the page, click the “Save Settings” button to save your security settings.


D-Link WBR-1310 - Wireless Network Security Settings
(Click to enlarge)

After performing the above steps, your should now have a secured D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless G Router, and you won’t have to worry about others using your Internet connection.

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While I haven’t seen this before, I wasn’t sure if there was a problem with the router or the local computer I was working on. I had used this router in the past, and never experienced any problems with it, so I decided to look at the computer for the problem.

Solving the Problem

The first thing I would try would be to stop some of the background processes that were running on the local machine. I know from past experience that applications that load at startup, and run in the background, can impact other applications.

The local machine I was working on had many loaded applications – some that were not needed. I slowly began to disable all the applications that I knew connected to, or impacted, a connection to the router.

I began to disable the following applications, in this order:

1. A bittorrent client that is usually running on that local machine.
2. The software firewall – while it is needed, I temporarily disabled it for testing. There were two firewalls active on this local machine – the Windows firewall and ZoneAlarm. I disabled both, and after testing, enabled only ZoneAlarm.
3. The anti-virus software.

There were many other applications that were running, but I started with the above three since once of them is probably the culprit. After disabling the bittorrent client I loaded up the configuration pages for the router. The problem still existed. I then disabled the software firewall and still the problem existed.

Finally, after disabling the anti-virus application the problem disappeared and the configuration pages were displayed without problems. To be sure I re-enabled the anti-virus software and the problem reappeared.

In this case, the anti-virus software appeared to have prevented the configuration pages in the web browser from displaying properly – it probably thought there was some malware on the pages. I’m sure I could have investigated the cause within the anti-virus tool, but I was time limited, so I installed another anti-virus software that didn’t produce the problem.

If you are having problems displaying, or using your router configuration pages, it could be your anti-virus software that is causing the problems.

For those interested, the router was a Linksys BEFSX41 wired router, and the anti-virus software was Avast. I installed Microsoft Security Essentials to replace Avast.

See larger image Cisco-Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch (Electronics) List Price: Price Not Listed New From: Check Amazon For Pricing In Stock Used from: $14.75 In Stock

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Unfortunately, I had changed several settings and then realized that my broadband Internet had slowed down to a crawl. My highspeed became dialup speed. In order to solve the problem I began to undo some of the changes until I found the culprit. I eventually found the problem, which I explain in this post.

The Need for Speed

While the networking settings for Windows 7 are good on their default settings, there are many that try to get every once of speed out of the connection. I am one of them. Many times changing a setting may increase the speed, marginally, while other times it would make it worse. I learn best when something breaks – such as I learn not to do it again.

I recently began changing some of the TCP settings within Windows 7, and brought my highspeed Internet down to dialup speed. It took forever for pages to be displayed in my web browser.

In order to fix the problem, I began to slowly reverse the settings I had change – luckily I had remembered what I changed. When I reset one setting back to the default value, I then tested my Internet to see the impact. It wasn’t until I changed the “ECN Capability” setting that my connection speed returned to normal.

Like everything else, I decided to look up the setting to see what it acually does.

ECN Capability

Explicit Congestion Notification, or ECN for short, provides routers with an alternate method of communicating network congestion. ECN assumes that router congestion is the cause of any packet loss, so it attempts to decrease the number of retransmissions.

This capability allows routers to mark packets, and allows clients to reduce their transfer rate to reduce any more packet loss. ECN-aware routers may set a bit in the IP-header, instead of dropping a packet, that signals network congestion. The sender must then react as if a packet had been dropped, once the congestion has been echoed by the receiver.

By default, ECN capability is disabled for both Windows Vista and Windows 7. The reason for this is because many outdated routers may drop the packets with the ECN bit set, instead of ignoring the bit.

In my case, in order to find out the problem with my Internet speed, I ran a tool that mapped out my connection on the Internet, and I noticed that each time I tried to download a web page, I would have unusually high packet loss. This was probably because my router dropped packets that had the ECN bit set.

Setting ECN Capability

In order to solve the problem, I reset the “ECN Capability” setting back to default using the following steps:

1. I clicked the Windows button and then entered “cmd.exe” in the search bar. I pressed CTRL+Shift and ENTER to open the command prompt window..

   Note:

   I use CTRL+Shift to open the command prompt with administrator access so I can change the TCP settings.

2. I typed the following to view my settings:
   netsh int tcp show global
3. I then entered the following command to disable “ECN Capability”:
   netsh int tcp set global ecncapability=disabled
4. I retyped the following to ensure “ECN Capbility” was disabled:
   netsh int tcp show global
5. I then closed the command prompt.

After changing the setting, I noticed that the speed of my Internet connection was back to normal, without any problems. I will, of course, continue to change settings now and then, as that is the best way I learn.

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The second computer is a laptop, and like the Wii, it is connected to the router through the wireless connection. Neither system was able to connect, which indicated there was a problem with the wireless signal. After some testing I managed to find a solution.

Couldn’t Connect Wirelessly

As mentioned above, the hard-wired desktop was able to connect to the Internet through my Linksys WRT54G wireless router, but the other two systems couldn’t connect. Since the wireless connection didn’t work, I used my desktop to examine the wireless settings in the router.

I checked to make sure my router wasn’t hacked, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed everything was still set properly and the router was secured. Next I checked all the settings, and everything was as it should be.

Then I thought about the fact that there are many wireless networks in my neighbourhood. In fact, at this moment I count at least five wireless networks, and I have great signal strength to some of them.

Thinking about this, I decided to change the wireless channel from 6 to 11. After changing the changing, the laptop and Wii were instantly able to connect to the Internet. It looks like my wireless network had a contention with the previous channel, which isn’t surprising considering that channel 6 is a default, so chances are many of the other wireless networks were using that channel.

Changing the Wireless Channel on the WRT54G

If you are having problems connecting to the Internet with your WRT54G Wireless-G router, then you can try changing the channel to see if that fixes your problem. To change the channel, use the following steps:

1. Log into your router’s administrative pages.
2. At the top, click the “Wireless” menu item.
3. In the “Basic Wireless Settings” page, select a different channel beside “Wireless Channel”.
4. Click the “Save Settings” button at the bottom to save your changes.

Other wireless routers would have similar settings. Hopefully, this was the problems and you will get your Internet connection back.

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After doing some quick research on that particular router, I learned that there are actually three different revisions of that router. This caused the issue because two of the three revisions had different administrative screens that those I outlined in the post. If you would like to find the revision of your router, then read on.

Finding Your DI-524 Revision

As mentioned above, there are three revisions of the DI-524 wireless G router. While not obvious to most that use the router, there are minor differences between the administrative pages between the first two revisions and the final one. To find the revision that you are using, follow these steps:

1. Login to your router.
2. Click The “Status” tab at the top.
3. The “Firmware Version” will indicate the router revision you are using, as this table
   shows:

   Revision	Firmware
   A	1.xx
   C	3.xx
   D	4.xx

Small Differences Between Revisions

There are a small number of differences within the administration pages that can cause confusion when outlining steps to changing your router settings. A good example, as mentioned above, is the page where you set your wireless security settings. While the settings are similar between the three revisions, how they settings are actually set are different.

Since I have learned about the three difference revisions, I have since updated my past post on securing the router.

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If you need to start over with your router, one solution is to reset your router back to its factory defaults. This means that you return all the settings on the router back to what they were when you first purchased and setup the router. This post will explain the two methods you can use to reset the Linksys WRT160N wireless-n router.

Using the Reset Button

The first method involves using the reset button that is located at the back of the router. It isn’t hard to reset the router this way, but does require physically being in the same location as the router.

To reset the router using the reset button, use these steps:

1. Look for the red reset button at the back of the router.
2. Press and hold the reset button for approximately 5 seconds.

Reset the Router Through the Administrative Pages

The second method involves logging into the administrative pages of your router. This can be done from anywhere that you can connect to your router. While not complex, there are a few more steps than using the reset button.

1. Log in to the router’s administrative pages.
2. Click the “Administration” menu option.
3. Next, click “Factory Defaults” from the sub-menu.
4. Click the “Restore All Settings” button on the screen.

Regardless of which method you use to reset your router, it is important to secure your router after it has been reset.

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There are times, however, where you may need to reset your router back to the factory defaults. You may need to do this if a setting you changed is preventing you from connecting to your router or the Internet, or you don’t know the password to access your router. It is easy to reset the DIR-628 router back to the factory defaults, which I outline below.

Reset Button

The steps involved in reseting the router is simply pressing a button located on the router. The image below (courtesy of D-Link) shows where the button is located.

D-Link DIR-628 Reset Button Location

To reset your router, use the following steps:

1. Press the reset button for 10 seconds. You can use a small object, such as a paper clip to hold down the button.

Do not power off the unit while the router is being reset.

The unit should now reboot. Wait about 30 seconds before logging into your router.

2. Open up your Web browser and enter 192.168.0.1 in the address bar.
3. For the login, enter admin as the ID and leave the password blank.

The router has now been reset. Follow the steps in Securing the D-Link DIR-628 Wireless Router to secure your router.

This post has provided the instructions you can use to reset your D-Link DIR-628 wireless router. If you are having problems with your router, try reseting the router to the factory defaults, and then make the changes again and see if the router starts working.

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The 802.11n proposed standard is becoming much more commonly supported in various networking devices, and has been for the last few years. This post will provide step-by-step instructions for securing an 802.11n device: the D-Link DIR-628 wireless router.

Securing Your Wireless Router

To secure your D-Link DIR-628 wireless router, use the following steps:

1. Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.0.1.

Note:

If you have changed the IP address of your wireless router, enter that into the address bar. By default, the address is 192.168.0.1.

2. From the login page, select Admin form the dropdown list. If you have previously specified a password, then enter that into the Password field. If you haven’t, leave the password field blank.
3. Click the Log In button to continue.
4. You will be presented with two options: using the Setup Wizard or using the Manual Configuration. Click the Manual Configuration option.
5. We will set a password for the admin ID. Click the Tools option at the top.
6. From the Administrator Settings page, enter a password in the edit boxes below the Admin Password section. Click the Save Settings button to save the password.
7. Now that the admin password has been changed, we will now enable encryption to secure the wireless router. Click Setup from the top menu.
8. Click the Wireless Settings option on the left side.
9. Beside Security Mode, select WPA-Personal.
10. Next to WPA Mode select one of the following options:
    1. If you have multiple computers, which use both WPA and WPA2, then select Both.
    2. If all computers connected to the router will use WPA2 only, then select WPA2 Only.
    3. If all computers connected to the router will use WPA only, then select WPA Only.
11. Next to the Cypher Type option, select AES.
12. Now we will need to specify a passphrase. This passphrase is used to connect to the router from a computer, so it will need to be complex so it can’t be guessed. The passphrase must be 8-63 characters in length, with more characters meaning better security. You can generate a random one using GRC’s Ultra High Security Password Generator. For best results, use the 63 random printable ASCII characters option. Be sure to save this passphrase somewhere so you don’t lose it, or you will have to enter a new passphrase.
13. Click the Save Settings button to save your settings.
14. For the next few steps, count the number of computers that will connect to the wireless router. Now click Setup at the top.
15. On the left side, click Network Settings.
16. Scroll down to the DHCP Server Settings section. Next to DHCP IP Address Range, enter an address range that will include only the number of devices that will connect to your router. For example, if there will be three devices you will enter 192.169.0.100 to 192.168.0.102. This will cause the router to only assign three IP addresses.

You D-Link DIR-628 wireless router should now be secured. All you need to do is to connect to the router through your operating system, and enter your passphrase.

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Obviously, security is a major concern for most, so they may tend to not invest in wireless technology. For those that do, you are presented with many different network equipment that you can use. The network equipment is advertised as supporting several of the standard wireless networking standards. In this post I will briefly discuss each standard that has been created so you have some knowledge of what it all means.

802.11 Standards

The 802.11 standards was created in 1997 by the Institute of Electical and Electroncs Engineers (IEEE). This standard is a family that includes over-the-air modulation techniques. Currently, the two most popular versions of this standard are 802.11b and 802.11g, with 802.11n starting to make headway.

As with all electronic related standards, this one continues to be modified with newer versions that extend the speed and range over the previous version. Let’s take a look at the versions that have been created up to this point.

Legacy 802.11

The first version of this standard supported network speeds of up to 2 megabits per second (Mbit/s), and operated on the 2.4 GHz band. Today, this speed is far too slow for most applications, so products that support this version are no longer being manufactured.

802.11a

This version supports a much faster network speed of 54 Mbit/s, and uses the 5 GHz band. This version was more for commercial rather than personal use. Even though the network speed was much faster than the legacy 802.11, or even the 802.11b, it had a disadvantage in range. The range of the 802.11a was much more limited than the 802.11b version because the smaller wavelength was more easily absorbed by walls and other objects.

802.11b

With the speeds of networks and the Internet increasing, the 802.11 standard was much too slow for many applications. In 1999, an expansion of the original standard, called 802.11b, was created. This standard increased the speed to 11 Mbit/s from 2 Mbit/s. It uses the same 2.4 GHz band as the legacy version. Since 802.11a and 802.11b use different frequencies, they are not compatible. There are many network devices that can use both, but they can’t use them at the same time, and each connected device must use one or the other.

802.11g

The most popular standard currently on the market is the 802.11g standard. It is the second expansion of the original 802.11 standard. This standard has a transfer speed of 54 Mbit/s, like the 802.11a standard, but uses the 2.4 GHz frequency to provide a longer range. Since it uses the 2.4 GHz frequency, it is compatible with 802.11b devices, and most devices support both standards.

802.11n

The newest standard on the market is the 802.11n version. This standard improves on the 802.11g standard in that it supports multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). This means that instead of one antenna and wireless signals, it supports multiple antennas and signals. The biggest advantage is that it supports speeds over 100 Mbit/s (I read somewhere up to 600 Mbit/s), and has a greater range than the 802.11g standard. It can use the 5 Ghz or 2.4 Ghz frequency and is compatible with 802.11g devices. This standard will be finalized around December 2009, although you can buy 802.11n devices today.

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I recently wrote a post outlining the steps needed to secure a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G router. Now I will detail how you go about resetting the router if you do need to revert back to the factory defaults. I will explain the two methods you can use to reset the wireless router.

Reset Button

The first method involves simply pressing a button located on the back of the router. The button should be labeled Reset and can’t be pushed in by a finger. The image below (courtesy of Linksys), shows where the button is located.

To reset your router, use the following steps:

1. Press the reset button for 30 seconds. This can be done by using an object with a small tip, such as an unfolded paper clip.

At this point, all settings that you had previously saved have now been deleted. You will now need to re-secure your WRT54GL Wireless-G router.

2. Open up your Web browser and enter 192.168.1.1 in the address bar.
3. For the login, leave the ID blank and enter admin as the password.

The router has now been reset. Follow the steps in Securing Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Router to secure your router.

Through the Web Administration Pages

The second method involves logging into the Web administration pages of the router. If you can’t remember your password, then use the first method explained above. To reset the router back to the factory defaults, use the following steps:

1. Open your Web browser and enter the IP address of your wireless router. The default IP address is 192.168.1.1.
2. Enter your user ID And password when prompted. If the password hasn’t been changed, then the default password is admin.
3. At the top of the Web page, click Administration and then Factory Defaults.
4. Beside Restore Factory Defaults, click Yes.
5. Now click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the Web page.

Your WRT54GL Wireless-G router should now be reset to the factory defaults. Ensure you follow the steps outlined in Securing Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Router to secure your router.

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I decided to write another “how to secure a wireless router” guide, to help those who may not have one of the two routers listed above. This guide will describe the steps you need to take to secure the Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G router. The steps required are very similar to the WRT54G, but to avoid any confusion, I created this guide.

Securing Your Wireless Router

To secure your Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G router, use the following steps:

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

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 be changing it later if you are using the default password.
3. The Basic Setup Web page should now be displayed in your browser. Scroll down the page until you see Maximum Number of DHCP Users.

By default, many different computers (default 50) can connect to your router. We will limit the number of computers that can connect to just those computers that you use.

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. After changing your password, click Save Settings at the bottom of the Web page.
9. If you are prompted to login again, 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. When you connect to your router wirelessly, you are doing so over an unsecured connection. To secure this connection click the HTTPS checkbox next to the Access Server option.
12. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the Web page after selecting the HTTPS option.

You won’t get the settings saved page again because the URL in the address bar is not longer correct. From now on, when you want to access the administrative pages of your router, you must use HTTPS instead of HTTP when specifying your router’s IP address in your browser.

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

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. Next to the Wireless Network Name option, type in a name for your 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.
19. Next to WPA Algorithm, select AES. If you have trouble connecting to your wireless router, select TKIP.
20. 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.

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.

At this point you have secured your wireless router and network, so all you need to do is connect to your router from your computer. When prompted, enter your WPA Shared Key exactly as you specified it in the router.

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.

Summary

This post provided step-by-step instructions on securing your Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G router. After following the steps, you should now be confident knowing that you have a secure wireless Internet connection.

Related Posts

Securing a Wireless Network
Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband
Wireless Security: WEP and WPA
Creating Secure Passwords
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There could be many times where you could lose your connection, and can’t reconnect to the network without restarting your machine. In this post I’ll talk about two commands you can execute to try and reconnect to your network.

Reconnecting to a Network

While restarting a machine isn’t difficult, you may not want to because of a network disconnect. You may have open files that you need to save, or it may take several minutes to restart your machine. Whatever the reason, there is an alternative to restarting.

In many past posts, I have talked about retrieving your IP address by using a utility called ipconfig. Not only can you retrieve your IP address with this utility, but you can also connect and disconnect from your network using it.

If your machine can’t connect to your network, use the following steps:

1. Open up a command prompt by pressing Windows Key+R and type cmd in the dialog box that appears.
2. At the command prompt, type ipconfig /release. Wait for the command to complete as it may take some time.
3. Once the previous command has finished, type ipconfig /renew to reconnect.

The above process will work with both a wired and wireless network. If you still can’t connect, verify that your router is online.

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For those with other wireless routers, I decided to outline some of the security settings you can enable, if available, on your wireless router to make it secure.

The Settings

There are several settings, that by default, aren’t usually setup to provide a secure wireless connection. This is probably done this way to make it easier for you to secure your router the way you want to.

The settings outline below are the ones I deem important and should be set to ensure your connection is secure.

• Admin ID and Password. Routers have a default user ID and password that is widely published. Before making any other changes, ensure that you change the administrative ID and password of your router. If you can’t change the ID, ensure you change the password.
• Limit the Number of IP Addresses. Each router assigns a unique IP address to each computer that is connected to it. If you have a set number of computers that connect to your router, limit the number of IP addresses that the router can assign. This way if all the IP addresses are assigned to your computers, and an unwelcome visitor attempts to connect, they won’t be able to.
• Enable WPA or WPA2. New routers sold today contain the option of WPA, WPA2 or WEP. WEP is the older standard of security that has since been breakable. WPA or WPA2 are more secure than WEP so you should enable one of those instead.
• Enable AES. If you choose WPA, ensure you also set the algorithm/cypher type to AES. If you have problems with using AES, you can select TKIP.
• Set a Strong Passphrase. When you create a passphrase, ensure you use as many letters, numbers, and punctuation, in your passphrase as possible. The more of each type of character you use, the harder it is for someone to guess your passphrase.

Optional Settings

While the settings listed above provide a secure connection, there are additional settings that can be changed. For the most part, I don’t use the settings specified below, unless indicated, but you can if you choose.

• Don’t Broadcast the SSID. This one is a personal choice, and I don’t turn off my SSID broadcast. There are a few reasons why I don’t. First, at times I had trouble connecting my wireless network when it wasn’t broadcasted. Second, there are many tools that can display the SSID, whether it is broadcasted or not.
• Enable MAC Filtering. I used to enable this option, but at times found it a pain to maintain the list of MAC addresses. If you don’t mind managing MAC addresses, you can use this feature that may provide a bit more security from the usual web surfer. A true hacker can easily get by this setting.
• Enable HTTPS. This setting may not be available on all routers, but it is available on the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router. When this setting is enabled, a secure SSL is established when accessing the administrative pages from a web browser. I use this setting with my router.

Final Thoughts

If you make a mistake when securing your wireless router, you can easily reset the router back to factory defaults and start again. Routers come with a reset switch (you will need to look it up in the manual) that will remove any security settings you have set.

When you unplug the router, or power is lost, your security settings are not deleted. They will still be there when power is restored to the router.

Related Posts

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3. How to Secure the D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless G Router

Also within that post I talked about a Firefox add-on called Colour Management. This is only one of possibly thousands of add-ons that you can install for the Firefox browser. In this post I will list the add-ons that I currently use, and have used in the past, and would like to hear which add-ons you currently have installed.

What are Add-Ons?

Before listing the add-ons I currently use, I thought I should explain what they are to those new to the Firefox web browser. An add-on is simply used to customize, and extend the functionality, of the Firefox browser. They are small files that you download and enable to take advantage of the functionality that they provide.

Add-ons provide functionality such as adding toolbars, managing the Javascript/Flash/Images for the sites you visit, block ads, and open multiple HTML links at one time. There are probably thousands of add-ons that can be downloaded and installed, and most people that use Firefox have probably downloaded and installed add-ons that they favour.

You can easily install add-ons in one of two ways:

1. 1. Click Tools->Add-ons.
   2. In the search box enter a search term and press Enter.
   3. From the list of add-ons that appears, click Add to Firefox to install the add-on.
2. 1. Navigate to the Firefox Add-ons page.
   2. Enter in a search term or use the categories on the left.
   3. Select the add-on you want to install, and then click the Add to Firefox button from the add-on’s page.

Each time you install an add-on you will be asked to restart Firefox. You could install many add-ons at one time and then restart Firefox one time to complete the installations.

The Add-ons I Use

I have used many different add-ons in the past, and continue to use many today. The list below, while not complete, lists some of the add-ons that I use on a regular basis. I didn’t include a link to the add-ons as it may change in the future. Simply search for the name using one of the two methods above to install the add-ons.

Adblock Plus. This add-on blocks many of the ads that appear on web sites. It may not block some ads, but it does block a majority of them.

All-in-One Sidebar. I just started to use this add-on and I like it. It creates a hideable sidebar that contains shortcuts to some common features such as bookmarks, downloads, and add-ons.

Color Management. I talked about this previously, but it basically is used to setup the colour management capability for the Firefox browser.

Flashblock. If you have ever hated visiting web sites that display flash animation, or videos and wish that you wouldn’t have to view them, then this is the add-on for your. It prevents flash from playing when viewing a web page. A simple click on the flash object will allow you to view the flash. As a note, for those that use Google Analytics, you will need to click the graphs to view them since they use flash.

ImgLikeOpera. This one disables the viewing (and downloading, I think), of images on web sites. For those with slow connections, and don’t mind looking at web pages without images, this add-on will definitely speed up your browsing. I turn this one on at times.

Linky. I started using this add-on after I joined Entrecard. It basically allows you to open many HTML links at one time by simply using the right-click button and selecting an option in the context menu.

NoScript. I mentioned the add-ons above that stop Flash and images, this one stops Javascript from executing. Many sites use Javascript, and at times can really slow a site down, so I use this add-on to disable the Javascript. It also allows you to enable specific scripts for a page, site or globally. This add-ons can help increase the speed of your browsing by not allowing certain Javascript scripts to execute.

There are a few others that I have not included in the list, mainly because I have forgotten their names, but if I remember I will add them.

Which Firefox add-ons do you use?

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What if you have more computers than the number of ports on your router? You could just connect a second router, but the easier method is to simply connect either a hub or switch to the router. In this post I’ll talk about hubs and switches and how they are used in a network.

Hubs

A hub is a piece of hardware that contains several ethernet ports that connects several computers. Connecting a hub to a network is very easy. You can simply connect a hub to your router, and then several computers to the hub. The IP addresses of the computers that are connected to the hub are assigned by the router it is connected to.

Hubs work by broadcasting data to all computers that are connected to it. When a computer or program makes a request for information from another computer, the originating computer sends (broadcasts) the request to the hub. The hub will then brodcast the request to all computers that are connect to it. When the destination computer receives the request, it sends the information back to the hub. Once again the hub broadcasts the information to all computers, with only the requesting computer acting on the information.

The downside to this type of connection is that the bandwidth is subdivided between the number of computers that are connected to the hub. If you have a 100Mbps connection, and 2 computers connected to the hub, then the bandwidth available to each computer is 50Mbps. With 4 computers, the bandwidth drops to 25Mbps.

An alternative to hubs are switches.

Switches

Switches are similar to hubs in that they allow you to connect multiple computers together on a network. You can also connect switches to routers in the same way you connect hubs.

There are several differences between hubs and switches, however, that can boost the performance of your network. The performance increase has to do with how data is transmitted between the computers on your network.

While hubs transmit data via broadcasting the data to all computers that are connected to it, switches establish a direct connection between the transmitting and receiving computers. The added benefit of this is that the bandwidth is not subdivided. If you have a 100Mbps bandwidth on your network with 2 computers connected to a switch, the total bandwidth available to both computers is 100Mbps. This means that each port on the switch has the full bandwidth dedicated to it.

Many switches also have the ability to either use half- or full-duplex (receive and transmit at the same time). Hubs are half-duplex, which means they can either receive or transmit, but not both at the same time.

As you can see you can replace existing hubs on your network with switches to increase the effective speed of your network.

Connecting a Hub of Switch to a Router

Many people currently connect their computer to a router, which in turn, is connected to their high-speed modem. If you have more computers than ports on your router, you can simply connect a hub or switch to the router as well. Both are connected to the router the exact same way.

I have both a Linksys hub and switch. I have used both in the past, and am currently using the switch. Each one has 5 ports, with the fifth port also used as the uplink port. On your switch or hub, find the uplink port. This is the port that your router will connect into. For my switch, because the fifth port is also the uplink port, I can’t connect a computer to it when I connect the router. This means I can have a maximum of 4 computers connected with the router.

To connect a hub or switch to your router, use the following steps:

1. Determine the uplink port of your hub or switch.
2. Connect the router (any port) to the uplink port of your hub or switch.
3. Connect a computer to any of the unused ports on your hub or switch.
4. When you turn on the computer, your router will then assign an IP address to each computer connected to the hub or switch.

One thing to keep in mind when connecting many computers to a router this way is the number of computers that can be managed by the router. Each router has a limit to the number of computers that can connect to it. I’m not sure of the numbers, but you can always inquire with the manufacturer.

Hubs and switches allow you to easily increase the number of computers on your network, without having to worry about setup. They are easy to setup and require very little effort to maintain. Switches will provide much better network performance over hubs, so it may be more beneficial to use switches instead of hubs.

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I decided to choose Mozy as my online backup service mainly because of its ability to backup data from an external hard drive. Since all of my data is on an external hard drive, this was a major point in my decision. In this post I will outline my experience with the service so far.

The Pricing

Most online backup systems charge a fee for each gigabyte (GB) of storage that you use. My storage requirement is close to 100GB and will grow substantially in the future, so paying per gigabyte was not an option. Mozy, on the other hand, charges a flat rate per month for unlimited storage space. You can pay for a yearly subscription at $54.45 or two years at $103.95. I purchased the two year plan.

So for the next two years, I will be able to backup all of my data without worries of keeping track of the amount of money I will need to spend.

The Backup Process

As with other backup systems, I had to download an application that will run in the background on my computer, and monitor my data. Once it notices changes to the data, it will then begin the backup process.

There are many options available in the application that you can configure. I kept the actual options on the default, but did change what the application will backup. By default, Mozy includes a list of backup sets that should cover most users’ data. For me, I just needed my photos and videos backed up from my external hard drive.

I deleted all the default backup sets, and created a new one for my photos. I then selected my photos directory on my external hard drive, and then initiated the backup. A total of 16.3GB of digital photos were then backed up to the Mozy servers. It took approximately 4 days to backup that much data.

Once the photos were completed, I then created another backup set for my videos. I had to be careful here, however, as my ISP has bandwidth limits so I only selected a few videos to backup first. The total space for the videos was roughly the same as the digital photos, so it should take approximately 4 days as well.

The one thing to note about the backup is the temporary files. You will need roughly 130% of the size of the backup free on the drive containing your temporary files. This is because Mozy creates temporary files for your data (my guess is that they are the security-encoded files) before they are uploaded. This is a gripe for many users, but I have managed to not have any problems with it. I have plenty of free space on my drive.

During the last week there has been some very active weather where I live. This has caused the power to go off several times during the backup process, stopping the backup. Once I restarted my desktop, the Mozy backup continued from where it left off. The only problem was with a large video file. It appears to have restarted that one over again. So if Mozy is in a middle of a large file backup and is interrupted, it will restart the backup of that file.

I have not yet tried to restore my files, but I’ll do once I get my data backed up and let you know how it went.

The Pros

There are several good points about the service, that I have found in my week of using the service.

• Unlimited storage space for a flat fee per month. Yearly and two year plans exist.
• The application doesn’t slow down the Internet connection, or hog the processor.
• Has the ability to backup data located on an external hard drive.
• Includes the ability to only use a percentage of your Internet bandwidth.
• Fast uploading. Uploaded at roughly 600Kb/s, and my maximum speed is 640Kb/s.
• Continued where it left off with the backup when the power went out.
• Can easily suspend the backup by right-clicking the icon and selecting suspend from the menu.
• Technical support responded to my questions within 24 hours.

The Cons

No backup service is perfect, so there are also a few issues with Mozy.

• Uses a lot of disk space on the drive with the temporary folder.
• If the backup is interrupted for a large data file, the backup will restart the backup of that file.
• If a file is deleted on your computer, it is removed from your online backup during the next backup.
• Must pay to backup additional computers. If you upgrade your computer, you can contact Mozy support and they can transfer your account to your new computer.

Summary

I decided to purchase the two year plan with Mozy to manage my online backups. So far I haven’t had any issues with the service, and have been pleased with the speed of my backups. This sevice is one of the last pieces of my backup solution, and will allow me to restore my files without retrieving my actual archived DVDs.

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Recently, however, I have been thinking about how I access my digital photos. I currently have a laptop and desktop, and would like to be able to view and edit the photos on either machine. This has got me thinking more about getting a NAS device. For those that don’t know what a NAS device is, I will explain what it is in this post.

The NAS Device

Many people are familiar with an external hard drive. These drives are usually connected to a computer using a USB port. Once the drive is powered on, the operating system will detect the drive and install the necessary drivers and assign a drive letter for that drive. Many external drives are used for backup purposes.

One of the drawbacks for an external drive is sharing it among different computers. If you have a laptop and desktop, you would usually disconnect the drive from one computer and connect it to the other to use the drive. It would be much easier to have a drive that connects to your network, such as through a router, that all computers can use.

This is where NAS devices come in. NAS is an acronym for Network-attached storage. It is a self-contained computer that is connected to a network. A NAS contains its own operating system that handles the functionality of data storage, file systems, and the access to the files. Unlike a regular computer, a NAS doesn’t include a monitor, keyboard or other peripherals.

A NAS device usually contains a motherboard, a processor, and RAM as well as one or more hard drives for storage. NAS devices can also include built-in RAID and clustering to help protect your data and possibly provide a performance increase.

Using a NAS Device at Home

As more people connect to the Internet using broadband connections, they are creating their individual home networks using routers and switches. A NAS can connect directly to a router since it will have its own network card. Once it is connected and powered on, the NAS device will received its own IP address from the router.

Once it has its own IP address, all other computers on the network can then connect to the NAS device and use its storage space. This will allow you to easily share data between the computers in your network. For me this will work great since I have both a laptop and desktop that I can then share digital photos between without having to download the photos on each computer.

Many NAS devices also include their own USB ports. You can use these ports to connect additional external hard drives so you can also share these hard drives using the NAS.

Summary

I will be looking into getting myself a NAS (Network-attached storage) device for backing up my digital photos. Since a NAS device is connected directly to the network, I can then view, and edit the photos from either my laptop or desktop.

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I went online and and began to search for various online backup solutions. There are many online companies that offer backup solutions, and each one has its good and bad points. I quickly gave two of the most popular sites a try, and this post will discuss my findings.

Backup Requirements

When I thought about backing up my data online, I had specific requirements that needed to be met. Some requirements came about after trying out certain solutions, and I eventually added them to the list. The requirements are listed below:

• Must be affordable. Unfortunately, I am not made of money so I can’t spend a fortune on backing up my data. I currently have 100GB of data, and that will grow very quickly.
• Must be able to back up from an external hard drive. This is very imporant as all of my data is on an external hard drive.
• Must run silently in the background. If an application is to be installed, it must run quietly and efficiently in the background. It must not use a large amount of the CPU and Internet bandwidth when the machine is in use.
• Must transfer the data securely. The data that is sent from my computer must be encrypted first, and then travel over the Internet securely.
• Must be quick to upload and download. I have a broadband connection (10Mbps down and 640kbps up) so it must make good use of the connection to reduce the transfer time.

The above requirements can change as I think of others, but the ones listed are a good start to what I am looking for in a service.

Carbonite

Carbonite was the first service I tried, and is one of the popular online backup solutions available. They are quite affordable at $49.95 for one year, or $89.95 for two years for unlimited storage. The unlimited storage is a great option for me considering the amount of data that I need to backup.

I downloaded and installed their software without any problems. But once I installed the software, I then ran into a rather big issue for me – the software can’t backup from an external hard drive. Hoping that this wasn’t a deal breaker, I quickly did a search online to get around this problem, and did find one simple solution – mounting the external hard drive as a folder on my computer.

For those that don’t know, when you connect an external hard drive in Windows it will automatically mount to the next available drive letter. Besides a drive letter, you can also mount the drive to a folder on your computer. When you then click on the folder you will see the contents of the external hard drive.

When I did do this I was able to backup my data, although not very efficiently. I marked my data to be backed up by selecting a folder, and then left the computer running over night. When I checked the backup status the next morning I noticed that it didn’t back up anything. When I indicated that it should backup some folders right away it worked fine. Unfortunately, I have many folders so this is very inefficent.

The problem could be that the folder is pointing to an external hard drive. I uninstalled the software indicating the lack of external hard drive support as the reason. If they do start supporting external hard drives, then maybe I’ll have another look at Carbonite.

For this test, I signed up for the 30-day trial.

Mozy

Along with Carbonite, Mozy is the other popular choice for online back ups. Mozy is cheap at only $4.95 per month, $54.45 for one year, or $103.95 for two years for unlimited storage, which as mentioned earlier is great for me and my 100GB of data.

When you use Mozy you need to install a piece of software that will run in the background, similar to Carbonite. Mozy’s software, however, has many more options that you can configure. I downloaded and installed the software without any problems, and began to select my data to backup. I was quite happy to see that Mozy can read and backup my external hard drive.

I signed up for the free account which gives me 2GB of storage space for free. This allows me to test out the system indefinitely, albiet, on a very small level. I selected 1GB of my data to be backed up and began the process.

When the backup began a little window popup window showed the current status for encrypting and preparing the data, as well as the status of the transfer. The 1GB of data was backed up in about 6 hours, which means an upload speed of roughly 46KB/s. There is some transfer room here as my max upload speed is 80KB/s.

The one thing that I don’t like about Mozy is the fact that each computer you would like to use with the service requires you to pay more. I sent an e-mail to Mozy about changing computers, such as when you buy a new one and would like to use that for your backups. About 24 hours later I received a response stating that for a new computer, I should install the software on the new computer, where I will get an error when I run a backup. I should then send an e-mail back to Mozy where they can then send me a file to make things good again. No re-uploading of all my data, which is great.

Overall, I didn’t have any trouble with backing up my data with Mozy as everything went smoothly.

Summary

I have been looking into backing up my data online. With 100GB of data, I needed a service that won’t break the bank and is easy to use. I tried two of the most popular – Carbonite and Mozy, and it appears that Mozy has been able to meet my requirements.

As with all online services, there are people that have had good and bad experiences with both, as well as other backup services. I would be curious to know your opinion, or have another service that I can try. I have yet to purchase any but will be looking to do it in the near future.

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I have decided to begin compiling a list of default user IDs and passwords for various routers. This is by no means a complete list, but I will add to it as time goes by.

The following sections provided the default user ID and password for different routers. For the values that are listed as (blank), simply leave that field empty.

Linksys Router Default User IDs and Passwords

D-Link Router Default User IDs and Passwords

It is important that you change these values in your router configuration to secure your router. Never leave these values as the default. I can now use this post if I needed to lookup my WRT54G default password and user ID.

If you have a router that you would like added to the above lists, then send me an e-mail or leave a comment and I will add it. The router can be from any manufacturer, not just Linksys or D-Link.

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One topic I haven’t discussed is how to retrieve the IP address of your router. You may not know the IP address if, for instance, someone has configured your router and changed the default address. I will show you how to get it in this post.

IP Addresses

Before I explain how to get the IP address of your router, I will provide a quick overview of an IP address. An IP address is a series of four numbers separated by dots that is unique to every machine and device on a network. This allows you to connect to any device by simply specifying the IP address of that device.

Since each device has a unique IP address, your computer, and router each have their own IP address. The address of your router is assigned by your ISP, and the address of your computer is assigned by your router. Your router will also have an IP address assigned by itself so it can connect to your local area network (LAN) and the Internet.

Now that you have have an idea what an IP address is, let’s take a look at retrieving the IP address of your router.

Retrieving the Router’s IP Address

When your computer connects to your router, it must know the IP address of the router, or it can’t connect. Since it must know the IP address of the router, you can easily retrieve it using a simple DOS command called ipconfig.

To retrieve the IP address of your router, use the following steps:

1. Click Start->Run to open a Run dialog box. Alternatively, you can press Windows Key+R.
2. In the box beside Open type cmd. A DOS window will appear.
3. At the prompt, type ipconfig. Some information about your current networks will be displayed on the screen.
4. Look for the entry labelled Default Gateway. This is the IP address of your router. A gateway is a device that acts as an entrance to a network. In this case the router acts as an entrance into your local network from the Internet.

Now you can type that IP address into your browser to access the router’s administrative Web pages, or use it to setup your network manually.

Summary

There may be times when someone has setup a network and changed the default IP address of the router. You can easily retrieve the IP address of your router by simply running ipconfig from a DOS prompt. The IP address of your router will be listed beside Default Gateway in the response of ipconfig.

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More recently I wrote another post title How to Reset the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router and decided to write a similar post on reseting the DI-524 router.

Reset Button

The steps involved in reseting the router is simply pressing a button located on the router. The image below (courtesy of D-Link) shows where the button is located.

Location of the D-Link DI-524 Reset Button

To reset your router, use the following steps:

1. Press the reset button for 10 seconds. You can use a small object, such as a paper clip to hold down the button.

Do not power off the unit while the router is being reset.

The unit should now reboot, and once the WLAN light stops blinking the router should be reset.

2. Open up your Web browser and enter 192.168.0.1 in the address bar.
3. For the login, enter admin as the ID and leave the password blank.

The router has now been reset. Follow the steps in Securing D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router to secure your router.

Summary

This post has provided the instructions you can use to reset your D-Link DI-524 wireless router. If you are having problems with your router, try reseting the router to the factory defaults, and then make the changes again and see if the router starts working.

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The one problem I didn’t mention is how to reset the router back to the factory defaults. You may need to do this if you forget your router’s password or made a mistake and you can’t connect to the router. In this post I’ll outline two methods you can follow to reset your Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router.

Reset Button

The first method involves simply pressing a button located on the back of the router. The image below (courtesy of Linksys) shows where the button is located.

Linksys WRT54G Reset Button Location

To reset your router, use the following steps:

1. Press the reset button for 30 seconds.

The settings should now be returned to the factory default settings, meaning any changes you had made would be deleted.

2. Open up your Web browser and enter “192.168.1.1″ in the address bar.
3. For the login, leave a blank ID and enter “admin” as the password.

The router has now been reset. Follow the steps in Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router to secure your router.

Through the Web Administration Pages

The second method involves logging into the Web administration pages of the router. Use the following steps to reset the router using this method:

1. Open your Web browser and enter the IP address of your router. By default, the address is “192.168.1.1″.
2. Enter your user ID And password when prompted. Hopefully this has been changed, but if it hasn’t, the default is no ID and “admin” as the password.
3. At the top of the Web page, click “Administration” and then “Factory Defaults”.
4. Beside “Restore Factory Defaults”, click “Yes”.
5. Now click the “Save Settings” button at the bottom of the Web page.

Your WRT54G wireless router should now be reset to the factory defaults. Ensure you follow the steps outlined in Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router to secure your router.

Summary

This post has provided two methods you can use to reset your Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router. If you are having problems with your router, try resetting the router to the factory defaults, and then make the changes again and see if the router starts working again.

See larger image Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security (Paperback) By (author) T. Bradley List Price: $31.95 USD New From: $20.60 In Stock Used from: $15.98 In Stock

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After doing some testing, and then research, I was able to find a solution to the problem.

The Error

When attempting to load a Web page, the following error was displayed in the Web browser:

It didn’t make a difference which Web browser I used (IE or Firefox), the error was the same. I couldn’t access the Web page from another computer on the same network, so it made me think that it was either related to the DNS servers on the network or the Web site. I then tried to access the Web page from a different network using different domain name servers, and I was able to view the Web page. This eliminated the Web site.

At this point I narrowed down the problem to the domain name servers on my network, which happens to be my ISP (Internet Service Provider). Unfortunately, I don’t have access to those servers, and contacting them would probably take too much time. I decided to find a solution that I could implement that would fix the problem.

The Solution

I did some quick research on the Internet and found a free site that allows you to connect to their domain name servers. This site is called OpenDNS. I managed to change the DNS settings in my router to use the OpenDNS servers and then released and renewed my IP address. I then tried to access the Web page and was happy to see it load. OpenDNS provides all the instructions for you for many operating systems and routers.

I haven’t heard too much about OpenDNS, but apparently they are popular online. I’m sure there are other Web sites that offer the same, and I’d be interested to know about others. For now, switching DNS servers worked for me and solved my problem.

Summary

A few days ago I received a DNS error message when browsing to a Web site. I determined that the problem was related to my ISP domain name servers, which I didn’t have access to, so I couldn’t correct the issue.

I was able to find a Web site online that allows you to connect to their DNS servers for free. After doing that, my problem disappeared.

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In this post I explain broadband, and the various types of options available to a home user. This post will not touch on all options, but it will explain the types of connections currently common today.

What is Broadband?

The term “broadband” is a common term you here when discussing an Internet connection. Up until the last few years, most people used modems over a phone line that would download data at a rate of up to 56kbps. Back then the World Wide Web was made up of mainly static HTML pages and nothing more than that.

Today, the Web has become more of a social and multimedia medium than just plain static HTML pages. This is one of the reasons people are switching to broadband or high-speed Internet connections. Broadband includes those connections that are faster than dialup, and are typically faster than 512Kbps (kilobits per second).

When researching a broadband provider, you may notice that the provider displays both a download speed and upload speed. You may also notice that the download speed is much faster than upload, mainly because a subscriber will download more than they upload. The speeds are usually expressed in kilobits-per-second (Kbps) or megabits-per-second (Mbps). To get the speed of the connection in bytes, divide the bits-per-second value by 8. For example, if the provider indicates the download speed as 640Kbps, then the speed in bytes is 80KBps (kilobytes-per-second) or 640,000 bits divided by 8.

There are many types of broadband available to you, and I will explain a few of the types in this post.

ADSL

The name ADSL is an acronym for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. This type of connection uses the existing phone lines in your house to provide high-speed Internet access. The speed of ADSL connections can support 1.5 to 8Mbps for downloads, and 16 to 640Kbps for uploads.

Besides the increase in speed, the difference between an ADSL connection and the standard dialup is the fact that ADSL does not tie up your phone line. This means that you can connect to the Internet and use the phone at the same time.

One disadvantage to ADSL is that it is a distance sensitive type of connection. The farther you are from the provider’s central office, the weaker the signal and the slower the connection. Subscribers close to the provider will experience the fastest connections.

Cable

As mentioned earlier, when people originally connected to the Internet, they used modems and their phone line. Cable companies then became involved in Internet access and began offering much faster connections than dialup could.

Cable Internet connections are very speedy when compared to dialup. The speed of these connections can range any where from 512Kbps to 20Mbps download, and can match the upload speeds of ADSL connections. I currently use cable broadband for my Internet connection, and the advertised speed from my provider is 10Mbps download and 640Kbps upload.

The one drawback to cable is the fact that the line is shared by all cable subscribers in your neighbourhood. This means that during peak hours, the Internet connection can be considerably slower, but still faster than dialup.

Satellite

For many people in rural communities, it can be hard to find a broadband service provider. For those in such a situation you may be able to get broadband through satellite.

The same satellite dish for television is also used for Internet access. There are two systems used by satellite: one-way and two-way. In a one-way system data is downloaded via the satellite but uploaded via a dialup phone line. For a two-way system, both downloads and uploads are handled by the satellite.

Satellite broadband is more expensive than either ADSL or cable, but may be the only alternative for those living in rural areas.

As with satellite television, satellite broadband may also be affected by bad weather which could increase the latency of your connection.

Wireless (WiFi)

Wireless is becoming more popular in home networks with more affordable wireless routers and adapter cards. You may already have heard about wireless hotspots in some of the larger cities, which allows you to connect to the Internet through a wireless connection in the city.

Internet speeds over a wireless connection can reach 30Mbps or higher, which makes it a very fast connection. One of the downsides with a wireless connection, as always, is that of security, since data is downloaded and uploaded using radio waves.

Wireless broadband is fairly new, so there are not many hotspots available for use, but the number is growing.

Summary

Broadband is a high-speed Internet connection that allows users to download and upload at speed many times faster than traditional dialup. There are several types of broadband available to home users including ADSL, cable, satellite, and wireless. Each type has it’s plus and minuses, however, it is important to weigh what options are available to you and choose one that provides the service you need at the right price.

Related Posts

1. Broadband Internet Connection – Troubleshooting
2. Different Methods of Connecting Multiple Computers to One Internet Connection
3. Internet Connection Slow in Windows 7

I will explain several other methods that you can use to connect computers to one Internet connection.

Number of Computers to Connect to a Router

I have noticed that one of the most frequent questions that I get about connecting multiple computers is “how many computers can I connect to my router”? The answer to this question is the same as most other tech answers: “it depends.”

Each router only has so many ports that you can connect a computer into, and each connected computer requires the use of some of the router’s memory. That’s right, a router has internal memory. From what I have read, the new versions of the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router actually has less memory than the older versions. This may impact the number of computers that can be connected.

For most people, you probably won’t have any issues, especially if you have less than five computers. As you add more computers, however, you may have issues with your router. I can’t tell you the total number of computers, as I don’t know.

How can you get around this? By implementing other hardware on your network.

More Routers

The first thing you can try is connecting a second router to your first router. Your second router will now manage the IP address of any new computers connected to it. Its IP address will now come from the first router. It is more difficult, however, to connect two routers together because of a DHCP conflict, but it can be done.

When I connected two routers together, I enabled the DHCP service on the first router, and disconnected it on the second router. All computers that were connected to the second router had to be manually setup with the DNS and IP addresses. Enabling DHCP on the second router dropped the Internet connection to all computers connected to it.

If you really wanted to, you can keep connecting routers to other routers to create many different network LANS, but managing them could be complex.

Adding Switches

With my network at home, I am lucky that my Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns me up to three IP addresses. Why is this good? Here’s why.

My router isn’t directly connected into my cable modem, but is instead connected to a network switch. A network switch is similar to a router in that it directs traffic to the address that requested it, but it doesn’t assign IP addresses. Now when a computer requests some information, the request is sent through the router, then the switch, and the modem and then out to the Internet.

I also have connected a second router to the switch. Since my ISP assigns me three IP addresses, each router will receive one of the IP addresses. This essentially creates two separate networks in my home, one from each router. My wireless connections connect to one router, while my desktops are hard-wired into the second. This separates my wireless and wired connections.

Now, if I needed to share data between them I can use VPN or setup an FTP server.

A Router and Switch

If you decided to connect more computers than you have ports into your router, you can use a router as explained in the first part, or you can just add a switch, similar to the method explained in the second part.

You would simply connect a switch to one of the ports on your router, and then the computers to the switch. Since a switch doesn’t have an IP address, nor does it assign IP addresses, all computers connected to it will be assigned IP addresses from the router. This setup allows you to manage one network instead of multiple.

Summary

This post provided a quick overview on the different types of network configurations. It explained about router to router and switch to router connections. I also explained how to create several networks from an ISP that provides multiple IP addresses. For many people, however, a single router connected to the modem is all they would need.

Related Posts

1. Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband
2. What are Hubs and Switches?
3. Broadband Internet Connection – Troubleshooting

I have decided to expand on those definitions by providing a more information post about WEP and WPA. Hopefully, this post will help you better understand how a wireless network is secure.

About Wireless Network Security

Networks have been around for many years, and with the advent of broadband Internet connections, they have also appeared in homes. Many of these networks were simple LANs with probably two computers connected by a cable. All that was really needed was applying security within the operating system, a software and hardware firewall and all was good. Unless someone connected directly into your network using a cable, your network was relatively safe and secure.

For the past many years, however, many of these networks have included a laptop or desktop with a wireless connection. Wireless now allows users to connect to the Internet from anywhere in their home with the need to connect using a cable. One security problem was created: the wireless signals are broadcasted over radio signals that allow anyone with a wireless network adapter to easily connect.

To secure these wireless connections, some security protocols were created to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the network. These security protocols are known today as WEP, WPA and now WPA2.

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

In September 1999 a set of wireless connection standards was ratified and was given the name IEEE 802.11. These standards included the WEP encryption protocol as the means of protecting data over a wireless connection.

Back in 1999, the US Government placed restrictions on the key size for encrypting data. This allowed only 64 bit WEP encryption, which uses a 40 bit key included with a 24 bit initialization vector (IV). Since that time the restrictions have been removed and a 128 bit (140 bit key size) WEP key has been used. This is usually entered as 26 hex characters (4 bits) by the user (26 times 4 bits is 104 bits). Using 128 bit keys is known as WEP2.

WEP works by encrypting each frame of the payload before transmission. WEP concatenates the key supplied by the user with the random-generated 24 bit IV. The IV can be changed for each frame, although it is not required under IEEE 802.11. The resulting "seed" is then inputed into a random number generator to produce a keystream equal to the length of the frame’s payload and a 32 bit integrity check value (ICV).

Before transmitting the data, the keystream and the payload/ICV is combined through a bitwise XOR process to produce cyphertext (encrypted data). The IV is included in the first few bytes of the frame body, and is not encrypted. The client then uses the IV and the shared key to decrypt the payload data.

Security Issues with WEP

You may have heard that there is a security problem with WEP encryption. The first problem with WEP is the relative small size of the IV and keys. Since only 24 bits are used for the IV, WEP can eventually use the same IV for different packets. This can be more of a problem on a busy wireless network. If a hacker were to capture enough of the frames that include the same IV, they can then determine the shared keys that are among the frames. This can then lead to the hacker decrypting the data.

Another problem with WEP is the static shared keys. Administrators can use the same shared keys for weeks, months, and even years at a time. This can give a hacker plenty of time to determine the shared key and then compromise your wireless network.

To solve these issues, a new security protocol was developed called WPA.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2)

In response to the weaknesses of the WEP security protocol, the Wi-Fi Alliance created Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA. Based on a draft 3 of the IEEE 802.11i standard, WPA is designed to enable standard-based security on wireless networks for products that pre-date the IEEE 802.11i standard.

There are several differences between WEP and WPA. For one, WEP uses 128 bit keys with 24 bit IV, while WPA uses 128 bit keys with a 48 bit IV. WPA uses the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), which dynamically changes keys as the system is used. The combination of the larger IV and TKIP makes WPA more secure than WEP.

Once the 802.11i standards were released all mandatory elements were implemented in WPA2. This also includes a new algorithm called AES-based (Advanced Encryption Standard) that is considered to be fully secure. Unlike WPA, WPA2 may not be supported by older network devices, but they may be compatible after a device driver update.

For home users the most important aspect to setting up WPA security is to create a passphrase. This passphrase must be entered by every client who wishes to access your wireless network. Unlike passwords, a passphrase must be between 8 and 63 characters in length. The close a passphrase is to 63 characters, the more secure it will be.

Summary

This post provided an overview to WEP and WPA/WPA2. If your wireless router allows you to set WPA then you should choose WPA over WEP. If you don’t have the option to set your router to WPA, then you should choose WEP as some security is better than no security.

Related Posts

1. Securing the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
2. Securing a Wireless Network
3. Securing the Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Router

Securing Your Wireless Router

To secure your D-Link DI-524 wireless router, follow these steps:

1. Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.0.1.

Note:

If you have changed the IP address of your wireless router, enter that into the address bar. By default, the address is 192.168.0.1.

2. Enter the user ID and password for your router. If you haven’t changed it, the default user ID is “admin” and the password is “blank”. We will change it later if you haven’t already changed it.
3. We will first change the administrative password. First click the “Tools” tab at the top of the page. The “Admin” page should be displayed.
4. Within the “Administrator Settings” on the right, enter a new password for the administrator beside “New Password” and then again beside “Confirm Password”.
5. Click “Apply” at the bottom of the page. The next time you access the administrative options, you will need to enter the new password with the “admin” user ID.
6. Next, click the “Home” tab, and then select “DHCP” on the right. The “DHCP Server” Web page should now be displayed.
7. We will now limit the number of IP addresses assigned by your wireless router. Count the number of computers that will connect to the router, and change the “Ending IP Address” to allow that many computers to connect.

For example, if you have three computers that need to connect to your wireless router, enter “102″ into the text box. The first computer will get the IP address 192.168.0.100, the second 192.168.101 and the third 192.168.0.102.

8. Click “Apply” at the bottom to save your changes.
9. Now we will secure you wireless connection to prevent others from connecting. Under the “Home” tab, click the “Wireless” option from the left.
10. Beside the “SSID” option, enter the name for your wireless network connection.
11. This is where the steps are different depending on which revision of the DI-524 you are using. Beside “Security”, if you see “WPA-PSK”, then you should select that option, and then go to step 14. If you see a dropdown list, select “WPA”. If you can’t connect using “WPA”, then select “WEP”. Using “WPA” will provide a much more secure connection that using “WEP”. For more information about WEP and WPA please read Wireless Security: WEP and WPA.
12. Click “AES” beside the “Cypher Type”.
13. Make sure “PSK” is selected beside “PSK/EAP”.
14. Now you must get very creative. Specify a long “Passphrase” 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.

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.

15. Enter your passphrase next to “Passphrase” and again beside Confirmed Passphrase.
16. Click Apply to save your security settings.
17. Now you are all done securing your wireless router and network. All you need to do is connect to your network, and enter your “Passphrase” 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

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

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

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 can’t use WPA, use WEP because it is still better than nothing.

Summary

This post provided step-by-step instructions on securing your D-Link DI-524 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 D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router
Securing a Wireless Network
Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband
Wireless Security: WEP and WPA
Creating Secure Passwords
Broadband Internet Connection – Troubleshooting

Related Posts

1. Securing the D-Link DIR-628 Wireless Router
2. Securing the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
3. Securing a Wireless Network

In this post I will provide a glossary of networking terms (alphabetically) that you will see when creating a home network. This will be helpful when you configure your router but are unsure of a specific networking term.

Networking Terminology

AES – An acronym for Advanced Encryption Standard. A symmetric encryption algorithm used to protect data. This is aimed at replacing DES. It is one of the encryption options for a wireless network when WPA or WPA2 is used.

DHCP – An acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This is a communications protocol that allows network administrators manage and automate the assignment of IP addresses through a network. Every time a device connects to the network with DHCP it can be assigned a different address.

DNS – An acronym for Domain Name System. This is a system that translates the Internet domain names into their respective IP addresses. This information is usually stored in a database and a service will then lookup the IP address for a specific domain name. When an address is type in a Web browser, a DNS lookup is performed to find the actual IP address.

Gateway – A network point that acts as the entrance to another network. The router acts as the gateway to your local network, when you access the Internet through the router.

IP Address – Short name for Internet Protocol Address. This is a series of four numbers separated by dots, for example 192.168.1.1. Every computer connected to a network has its own unique IP address.

LAN – An acronym for Local Area Network. This is a network that covers a small, local area such as a home or office. A LAN network can be configured to transfer data at a high rate of speed.

SSID – An acronym for Service Set Identifier. A unique keyword of up to 32 characters (letters or numbers) that a wireless network card can connect to. For home users, this identifier can be set within a wireless router. This SSID of a wireless network can be broadcast to all computers within range of the signal to allow the computers to connect to the network.

TKIP – An acronym for Temporal Key Integrity Protocol. A security protocol designed to replace WEP on wireless networks without replacing legacy hardware. If can select TKIP when you specify WPA within your wireless router.

WAN – An acronym for Wide Area Network. Unlike a LAN, a WAN covers a much larger geographical area, and is usually comprised of one or more LANs.

WEP – An acronym for Wired Equivalency Protocol. A security protocol that provides a minimal level of security for a wireless network. It has flaws that skilled hackers can exploit. Use WPA if both your router and computers of capable of using it.

WPA – An acronym for Wi-Fi Protected Access. This is a replacement data encryption method that replaces the much weak WEP protocol. It is an improvement over WEP because it uses dynamic keys when encrypting the data. This is done by utilizing TKIP to encrypt the data.

Related Posts

1. Securing a Wireless Network
2. Securing the D-Link DIR-628 Wireless Router
3. Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband

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 Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G 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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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 can’t 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-G router. After following the steps, you should now be confident knowing that you have a secure wireless Internet connection.

Related Posts

1. Securing the Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Router
2. Securing the D-link DI-524 Wireless Router
3. How to Reset the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router

What is an IP Address?

IP addresses are a series of numbers in the form: nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn, where nnn is a one to three digit number. An IP address is unique to an individual computer on a network, similar to how your home has a unique address. For an Internet connection, an IP address is supplied by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In some cases, your ISP may provide you with more than one IP address, which allows you to connect multiple computers. As you will see later, however, you can still connect multiple computers with a single IP address.

Connecting a Single Computer

Connecting a single computer to your high-speed Internet is very simple to do. Simply connect a network cable into your modem, and then into the network card in your computer. Your computer will then be assigned an IP address from your ISP. For example, if your ISP assigned you the IP address of 24.24.50.17, then your computer will have that IP address. The figure below shows the connection.

When you make a request to a server, such as for a Web page, the Web server knows which IP address made the request. The information is then sent through the Internet and back to your computer. This is similar to when someone sends you mail to your home. The address on the mail allows it to be delivered to your home and not somewhere else.

Connecting Multiple Computers

How can multiple computers connect if only one address is assigned? When you make a request for a Web page, how does it know which computer requested that page? Let’s take our home analogy one step further. Let’s say instead of living in a house, you live in an apartment. When someone sends you mail, they not only include your address but also an apartment number. This number is internal to your apartment building and every apartment has its own unique number. Similarly, multiple computers can connect to the Internet if they each had there own unique local IP address. This can be handled by a router.

A router is a piece of hardware that connects directly to the modem. Each computer is then connected to the router, instead of the modem. Now instead of your computer having the IP address supplied by your ISP, your router now is assigned that IP address. This is similar to your router acting as the apartment building.

The beauty of a router is that it can assign its own local IP addresses. When you connect a computer to the router it now receives one of the IP addresses assigned by your router, similar to how each apartment has it’s own number. Now when you make a request for a Web page, the request is sent using the same ISP address, but this time it is assigned to the router. When the Web page is returned, the router receives the request, and sends it locally to the computer that requested the page.

The router also has its own local address that is similar to the local IP addresses of the computers. So now the router has two addresses assigned to it: an external one provided by your ISP, and a local one provided by it. This allows the router to connect to both the Internet and the local network. The figure below shows how the router and computers are connected, and the IP address assignment.

Note: The 192.168.xxx.xxx address are special IP addresses reserved for Local Area Networks (LANs).

Managing a FTP or Web Server on Your Network

Let’s take a look at this scenario. You have a router connecting multiple computers to the Internet. But now you want to create a FTP or Web server. No problem. You setup the necessary software on a computer on your network, told someone outside your network the local IP address of your FTP server and they try to connect. They then discover that they can’t connect. Why? Its similar to someone mailing something to you by just specifying your apartment number and no address.

The IP address assigned to your computer is local to your network. You can connect to that computer from within your network, but not from the Internet. You will need to use your ISP-assigned IP address (the one assigned to your router) to have someone from the Internet connect to your FTP server. The problem is that your router is assigned that IP and not your computer, and since an IP address must be unique, how can two computers have the same IP? The answer: they can’t, but they don’t need to.

Routers have the ability to forward information on a port to a specific computer. A port is a numbered channel that data can be sent through on a network. You cannot physically see it as it is a virtual channel used extensively in networking for sending/receiving data. For FTP servers the default port is 21; however another port can be used.

Open your router setup and look for the port forwarding option. Specify the internal IP address of your FTP server and the port number and then save that information. Now when a user tries to access your FTP site, they must use the ISP IP address that is assigned to your router. The router will then notice that the data is being sent on port 21 and then forward it automatically to your FTP server. A Web server can be setup the same way, but its default port is usually 80. The figure below shows the router with the assigned IP address of 24.24.50.17, and the FTP server with the local address 192.168.1.101.

Note: By default a router will dynamically assign IP addresses to the computers connected to it. This means that the first computer to connect to the router will get the first available IP address, and the next will get the second, and so on. If you manage an FTP server, it may be easier to assign a static IP address to the computers to ensure that the FTP server always has the same IP address.

Summary

This post described how to connect one or more computers to one Internet connection. It is important to remember the following:

1. If you have one computer connected directly to the modem, then that computer will be assigned the IP address from your ISP.
2. When using a router, the the router will be assigned the IP address from your ISP. Any computers connected to the router will be assigned a local address by the router.
3. A router will have the ISP IP address and a local IP address. This allows it to connect to both the Internet and your network.
4. When setting up a computer as a FTP, Web, or other server to communicate over the Internet, it is important to use the router’s IP address to access your server. You will then need to forward the necessary port to your server.

Related Posts

1. Different Methods of Connecting Multiple Computers to One Internet Connection
2. AOL Users – Multiple IP Addresses
3. What are Hubs and Switches?

Note: This post assumes that you know how to log into your router and know where specific settings, such as the IP addresses are displayed.

Reset the Equipment

Before changing the settings, you should first reset all equipment as the first step. The following steps describe the order to reset the equipment:

1. Turn off the computer.
2. Turn off or unplug the router.
3. Turn off or unplug the modem.
4. Wait 5 seconds.
5. Plug in the modem and wait for it to come back online.
6. Plug in the router and wait for it to come back online.
7. Turn on the computer and login.
8. Click Start->Run.
9. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
10. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
11. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t get an Internet connection then continue on to the next section.

Checking Router Connectivity

In this section we will check to ensure that the router has an IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

1. Open up a Web browser and navigate to your router setup.
2. Once the setup loads, navigate to the page that displays the IP address assigned by your ISP. For my Linksys router is shown by clicking the Status menu item.
3. There may be buttons or links to release and renew the IP address. First, release the address, and then renew it. For my Linksys router, I first click the DHCP Release button and then the DHCP Renew button.
4. An Internet or IP address should now be displayed in the page. If it doesn’t, then check to ensure that the router is connected to the modem and perform the previous step again. If you still don’t get an IP address then skip the next steps and continue directly with the next section.
5. Click Start->Run.
6. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
7. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
8. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t get an Internet connection then continue on to the next section.

Computer to Modem Connection

This section will determine if you can actually get an IP address from your modem, which would mean that there is a problem with the router. Follow the next few steps to perform the connection:

1. Disconnect the cable connecting the router and the computer from the computer.
2. Disconnect the cable connecting the modem and the router from the router.
3. Connect the cable from the modem directly into the network card in your computer. Plug the cable into the same location as the router was connected into.
4. Click Start->Run.
5. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
6. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
7. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you don’t then call your ISP technical support number and inform them of a problem. If you do, then there may be an issue with your router. Continue to the next section to see if the router problem can be fixed.
8. Before continuing, however, ensure that you plug in all the cables as previous to following the steps in the section. This means that the connection should be: modem->router->computer.

Troubleshooting the Router

Up to this point we have reset all the equipment, tested the router, and the modem. It has been determined that the problem may be with the router. This section will attempt to solve the issue.

1. If you closed the Web browser from a previous section then open a Web browser and navigate to your router’s setup.
2. Navigate to the page containing your Internet Setup. For my router it is the first page that is displayed.
3. Your setup hear depends on your ISP. Since I have cable as my Internet connection I make sure that setup is set to Obtain an IP automatically. If you have broadband dialup, you may need to select PPPoE and specify a user name an password. Check with the documentation provided by your ISP to determine which setting you should use.
4. Ensure that DHCP on the router is enabled.
5. Ensure that the number of IP addresses managed by the router can accommodate the number of computers that will be connected to it.
6. Save any setting changes you made.
7. Click Start->Run.
8. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
9. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
10. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t, then continue to the next step.
11. At this point you should try resetting the router to factory defaults and try the previous four steps again. Please read the documentation that came with your router on resetting it.
12. If it still doesn’t work then there could be a hardware issue with the router. If you just bought it, return it to the store and get a new replacement. If it is an older router, you may need to buy a new one.

Summary

This post described how to troubleshoot a broadband Internet connection. I hope that the tips provided here have help to solve connection issues that you may be having.

Related Posts

1. Different Methods of Connecting Multiple Computers to One Internet Connection
2. Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband
3. Internet Connection Slow in Windows 7

The biggest issue I wanted to address when setting up the wireless network is that of security. I have always been skeptical of wireless security, but since I have purchased a laptop, I decided to give wireless networking a try.

There are a lot of discussion on how to secure a wireless connection, some good, some bad, and some useless. This post will not go into detail about how to change the router settings to make it secure, but it will discuss what needs to be changed.

Administrative Credentials – Important

This is important whether you have a wireless or wired network. Ensure that all APs (access points) have a good strong password associated with the administrative account. If someone can get into your router because of a weak password, then your network can be compromised. You may also want to change the administrative ID as well.

Enable WPA Encryption – Important

This is probably the most important security measure to take when securing your wireless network. The previous standard called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was easy to crack within about 30 seconds. The new Wi-fi Protected Access (WPA) is more secure and should be enabled. You must also choose a passphrase that will be needed for each computer to connect to your router. Choose a passphase that is long, hard to guess, but easy to remember. Write it down somewhere so you don’t forget it. For assistance on creating a strong passphrase, please read my post on creating secure passwords. Follow the advice, but just make the passphrase longer.

Reducing the IP Addresses – Important

Routers allow you to limit the number of IP addresses they assign. If you have one computer, have the router assign only one IP address. If you have three computers, then the router should assign three IP addresses. This won’t prevent someone from getting into your network, but if all computers are connected, then the router won’t assign any more IP addresses to another computer.

Turning Off Router – Important

If you are going to be away for awhile, such as on vacation, simply turn off the router. If the router is off, then no one will be able to connect to it while you’re away. You won’t lose your router settings, and simply turn it back on when you return.

Turn off SSID Broadcast – Not Important

This is a debatable option with regards to a wireless connection. Many people would argue that not broadcasting your SSID will help with security. My opinion is that it won’t really provide security. Those who you are trying to gain access to your wireless network can easily determine your SSID, whether it is broadcast or not. I have also had problems with connecting to a wireless network when the SSID is not broadcasted, so I leave my setting on broadcast.

Using MAC Filtering – Not Important

Similar to broadcasting the router’s SSID, this is also a debatable point. An IP address is specific to a computer, a MAC address is specific to a network adapter within that computer. Enabling MAC filtering on your router only allows specific network adapters to connect to the router. While this may seem like a good idea, it can be a headache to manage the MAC addresses for all the computers that will be connecting to the wireless router. A knowledgeable person will also be able to "spoof" (imitate) a MAC address so it doesn’t guarantee security.

Summary

There are many settings that can be changed in your wireless router to make your network secure. This article has listed many of them, and you can make use of all of them or only some. The following, however, should be done to make your connection secure:

• Changing the administrative password and ID.
• Enabling WPA encryption.
• Reducing the number of IP addresses.

Related Posts

Wireless Security: WEP and WPA
Securing the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router
Securing the D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router
Creating Secure Passwords
Protecting Your Computer from Viruses and Spyware

Related Posts

1. Router Settings to Secure a Wireless Network
2. Securing the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
3. Securing the D-link DI-524 Wireless Router