The DS/PSP WiFi and Wireless Blog.

Basic Wireless Router Security

Here's a subject that always is passed by when an uneducated user installs a wireless router out of the box, security. Security is one thing that you should have enabled on a Wireless router unless you want people to suck up all of your bandwidth and leave you with dialup connection speeds.



Router Password
The first thing you want to do is change the Routers password, they all come set with the same password.


MAC Filtering
Definition: Short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network. In IEEE 802 networks, the Data Link Control (DLC) layer of the OSI Reference Model is divided into two sublayers: the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer interfaces directly with the network medium. Consequently, each different type of network medium requires a different MAC layer.
On networks that do not conform to the IEEE 802 standards but do conform to the OSI Reference Model, the node address is called the Data Link Control (DLC) address

All wireless devices come with a long number usually tattooed on the back of the device itself usually its on a sticker or something like that, your DS will have one on it. This number is called the MAC address, you can filter out devices by MAC addresses. For example your DS has the MAC Address 000009898989898 and your buddy has 000009898989899 on his DS if you put your MAC address into your wireless router database your buddy wont be able to use your internet connection. Say you've got a bunch of friends and you want to be a loser and charge them for internet access you could use their MAC address to control who can and who can't access your router. Oh by the way MAC addresses can be spoofed meaning faked so MAC filtering isn't foolproof.


SSID
Definition: Short for service set identifier, a 32-character unique identifier attached to the header of packets sent over a WLAN that acts as a password when a mobile device tries to connect to the BSS. The SSID differentiates one WLAN from another, so all access points and all devices attempting to connect to a specific WLAN must use the same SSID. A device will not be permitted to join the BSS unless it can provide the unique SSID. Because an SSID can be sniffed in plain text from a packet it does not supply any security to the network.

Usually out of the box the SSID is set to the name of your router mfg and its also set to broadcast that it is ready to send and receive traffic. It is also a good practice to change the SSID to something other than the one it came with, dot use a persons name, social security number or a street address.


W.E.P.
Definition: Wireless Encryption Protocol:
Short for Wired Equivalent Privacy, a security protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs) defined in the 802.11b standard. WEP is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired LAN. LANs are inherently more secure than WLANs because LANs are somewhat protected by the physicalities of their structure, having some or all part of the network inside a building that can be protected from unauthorized access. WLANs, which are over radio waves, do not have the same physical structure and therefore are more vulnerable to tampering. WEP aims to provide security by encrypting data over radio waves so that it is protected as it is transmitted from one end point to another. However, it has been found that WEP is not as secure as once believed. WEP is used at the two lowest layers of the OSI model - the data link and physical layers; it therefore does not offer end-to-end security


W.E.P. gives you more security than no security, think of enabling WEP as having a door with locks on it that are locked and not having WEP enabled as having a door with locks on it that aren't locked. A determined hacker could break WEP but it would take some time and most likely not worth it.

If you enable all of the recommended security locks a Hacker may not even notice your little corner of the world.

posted by John @ 9:58 PM