Optimize Your Wireless Router (Part 2)

Wireless router are by default are completely insecure. The default settings of brand new router were purposely set to be insecure to facilitate the easiest possible installation. If you leave these settings at default, it’s essentially similiar to putting up a big sign in front of your house, saying “Please come in and rob me.”

Here are basic 6 simple steps to secure your wireless router.

Step One

To properly secure the router, log into the administration screen and go to the Set Password section. Enter the default password and set a new one. Choose an unrelated password, for example: “Iwab8ao23“. Next, go to the Remote Management section and make sure that this feature is Disable.

Step Two

Under the section Wireless Setup, uncheck the box of Enable SSID Broadcast option. With this turned off, any wireless client that want to connect to this router has to be pre-configured with the exact SSID. Next go to Wireless Settings, and change the default SSID to something else.

Step Three

Under the same section, enable WPA-PSK for the wireless security option. Pick a difficult passphrase and leave the Key Lifetime set at 30 minutes. A 256-bit key is generated from the passphrase is never transmitted, WPA is more secure than the older WEP security standard. WEP uses a static key that is transmitted along with data packets over the air.

Step Four

Ensure the wireless driver of your notebook, PC or other wireless client support WPA. If not you will probably need to download the latest version from respective manufacturer’s website. If you’re using Windows XP Wireless Connection Manager, you can get the WPA update from Microsoft’s website.

To connect your wireless client to the newly secured router, just type in your new SSID, select WPA as the wireless encryption method and type in the passphrase.

Step Five

Now your wireless router is more secure than most others. Cracker will have to go through a lot of time and trouble to be able to get into your network illegally. However, there are further things you can do to improve the security. For Netgear routers, go to Wireless Setup section and click on Setup Access List. Any connected wireless client should already be seen in the list. Ensure that the box beside the option Turn Access Control On is checked, and add-in the listed wireless clients.

This way, only clients who have correct SSID, WPA-PSK passphrase and the correct hardware MAC address can connect to your router.

Step Six

The next thing to do is to disable DHCP. Client on a DHCP network get IP addresses automatically and unconditionally. If you only have a few consistent wireless clients that connect to your router, goto the LAN IP Setup section, and uncheck the option Use Router as DHCP Router. You will then have to manually assign IP addresses on each client device.

Click on Network Connections in Windows and get the Properties dialog box for your Local Area Connection. Click on the Properties button for Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and type in the IP address you want to assign.