How do i set up and configure my home wireless network?

Wireless networking can be a god send. It saves cabling to possibly un-cable-able (i may have just invented a word) places, and allows some flexibility with where you can and can’t work. On the other hand, it can be a disaster waiting to happen if it isn’t secured correctly. Too many times have i switched my laptop on to pick up a few wireless routers in my vacinity – completely unsecured, and utterly defenseless against someone who has half a brain and knows how to type words using one of those things commonly referred to as a “keyboard”.

It is for this reason i am writing this – in the hope that some may actually use this rough guide to secure their bloody networks. Come on, it isn’t that hard and can be sorted in minutes which will leave you secured for as long as you are using your wireless equipment. I will be happy to answer any questions people have relating to this article, just drop me a line. Remember – this page will be under constant development to allow me to amend it taking questions into account, adding bits that i might have forgotten, and changing bits that are ridiculously long winded (sometime’s i can ramble a little, have you noticed it yet?). This is supposed to be a “jargon-free” (i hate that word) article that should allow anyone to secure their network, so pay attention and sort it out.

Equipment

The most common reason for a home user to set up a wireless network is to share a broadband connection. This is a fairly straight forward setup for even the largest of computer morons, and requires the following in addition to your broadband connection and the PC’s with which you will be using the connection on:

• Wireless router (”Base station”)
• Wireless adaptors (”Clients”)

Well, that was’nt as painful as you would of thought, right? Try not to fly down to PC World and buy their overpriced guff. This equipment can be had for a good price online, although the PC World website does now allow you to reserve products online at a reduced price, i would only let that certain company have my money if i was really, really desperate and impatient.

In basic terms, a router is a device that can connect to, and share, an internet connection with computers. Your average “home user” router will have an integrated switch also, which you can use to connect your wired PC’s. Computers (”clients”) connected to this router can share the internet connection between them, so everyone can be online at the same time if they wish to be. As these computers are now connected together, you should also be able to communicate with them within your own network (your local area network) to transfer and share data.

Wireless standards

This can confuse some people, put simply there are different standards that have progressed as the technology has evolved. Wireless LAN technology is all based on the original 802.11 specification, which has evolved into the “a”, “b” and “g” specification. Heres some more information:

• 802.11 applies to wireless LANs and provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band.
• 802.11a that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5GHz band.
• 802.11b applies to wireless LANS and provides 11 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band.
• 802.11g applies to wireless LANs and provides 20+ Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band.

The most commonly used specification at the moment is 802.11G as it offers a good range with a good connection speed. Most routers and wireless adaptors will come with a 802.11B/G combination.

Setting up your equipment

Firstly – setting up your wireless router is straight forward. It usually involves plugging in a power cable, an RJ11 modem cable (telephone line) which is connected to a filter at the wall socket end, and an ethernet cable if your connecting a PC or two directly. Next step is to configure your router to connect to your ISP, which usually involves popping the routers IP address in your browser and away you go (ensuring your actually connected to it of course), or sometimes they come with install CD’s that talk you through it all, whatever happens it usually helps to read the manual if you don’t know what your doing. After doing this and ensuring your net connection is up, install your wireless adaptors into the client laptops’/PC’s they are needed in and give your wireless network a try.

Securing your network

Securing your home wireless network is an absolute must. There are several encryption methods but the overall best at the moment is WPA-PSK. This method is harder to crack than its predecessors, especially if you use a decent key with plenty of letters in upper and lower case and numbers. This key will need to be entered on the router, and then on each client that will connect to the router. Avoid WEP encryption as it can be cracked by any jerk with a laptop in around 10 minutes.

Make sure you set a password on your router to restrict access to its configuration aswell. This should be a basic detterant for anyone wanting to mess around with your router settings.

Enabling MAC filtering is another good way to ensure that only the people you want to connect to your router can connect to it. A MAC address is a unique address given to your wireless adaptor that will look something like this:

00-12-4C-F1-3E-34

You can view the MAC address for your wireless adaptor (or other network adaptors – but most routers will only allow wireless MAC filtering) by following the below procedure:

Start – Run – Type “cmd” – Type “ipconfig /all”.

Your MAC address will be labelled as “Physical Address”. This is the address you need to add to the router if you are using MAC filtering – and you will need to do this for each client that wants to use the wireless network.

With all that said – MAC filtering cannot guarantee 100% security on your wireless network (at the end of the day, nothing can) as people can discover and emulate a MAC address that is in the list and connect to the router using it – and as far as the router knows “hes on the list, let him in”.

Therefore using all the above mentioned methods should help to secure your wireless network even from determined little buggers. In summary:

• Enable and set a WPA-PSK
• Enable and configure MAC filtering
• Set a password on your router

If somebody does access your network and change router settings, remember you can perform a factory reset which will restore default settings. This is usually a small recessed button found to the rear of the unit, but again, read the user manual for your router if you are unsure. After it has been reset, make sure you secure it! 

Remember to use your common sense. You may well be all chuffed you have your wireless network up and running, but the guy next door might be just as happy as he can connect just as easily as you do without some sort of protection. Manufacturers are getting a lot better with pushing people to set security as soon as they get their router out of the box, so make sure you RTFM next time!!