Network Gurus

[yardape]

Not happy with the firmware that came with my linksys WRT54GL I'm looking for some software that will monitor my home wireless connection and secure it. It would be even better if the software were free. Has anyone used this? http://www.networkmagic.com/

Any other suggestions?

[WB9YZU]

Not happy with the firmware that came with my linksys WRT54GL I'm looking for some software that will monitor my home wireless connection and secure it. It would be even better if the software were free. Has anyone used this? http://www.networkmagic.com/

Any other suggestions?

Another newb at this myself.

I obtained one of those Friday and set it up manually. If you open your browser and type in the routers IP, and enter your password, you can adjust your security type. IIRC from my late night encounter with said hardware, it supports WEP and WPA. I have heard WEP is easy to fool, but I could not get WPA to work for some reason, so I am running WEP anyway...for the moment. I also decided it was a bad idea for folks using the wireless to access my router setup, so I shut that off.

As far as software goes, I saw lots of software out there from the big hitters, McAffee, Symantec...

[yardape]

Thanks for the reply. Mine ran great for awhile but I am conviced it is the firmware that eventually led to the crashing and death of my XP OS that had run flawlessly for the last 3 years. From reading the McAffee website I didn't get the impression that its software would setup and encryption. I'm also not as saavy with networking as it appears you are. I was hoping to find a magic pill,... install software that would find my router, lock it up and run forever. I may be dreaming.

[yardape]

I stand corrected. i was looking at the wrong product. Mcafee Wireless Home Network looks like just the ticket except that my WRT54G "L" does not appear to be supported. Arghh!!!

[yardape]

BTT

[Sniggs]

http://www.sveasoft.com/modules/phpBB2/index.php

[jml1911a1]

I don't know if this will do what you want or not, but it's interesting. I just upgraded my WRT54G v.3 with it.

dd-wrt firmware upgrade (http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php)

It's WAY more customizable than I need...

Edit: Trend Micro's Pc-Cillin (my favorite Internet Security software app) will periodically check for new devices on your wireless network, and ask you whether to trust or not trust them. This only protects the computer it's installed on, though, not the router. Get it at newegg.com for the best price.

[old_man]

A good security measure is to set the wireless router to only accept connections to wireless connections that have a mac id in its records. In other words, you only let particular wireless cards to access the router. Also set the router to not broadcast its presence. That way anybody driving by can't just see your network.

[RichP]

First step, get it working initially and connected to your laptops
Then
Turn off SSID broadcast once you have the initial setup, change the ssid boadcast name otherwise so as not to advertise it's make/model. Test to make sure you can still connect, continue, change the password on the login.
Then
Enable mac filtering to permit your wireless mac addresses, again check to make sure you can connect, continue
Then
Enable wpa-preshared key, the longer the passphrase the longer the encryption.
Check to make sure you can still connect, save it and reboot from a power off to make sure it all comes back up again.
Now, if you really want security we can talk about a radius or kerbros server running on a dedicated machine..

I run a wap54G here at the house thats only an access point, my main firewall is either a cisco pix or an SMC7008ABR depending on whether I'm on the DSL or cable modem. I prefer the SMC because of it's parallel printer port and serial port, don't particularly admire the 'all on one' router/gateway/firewall/wireless approach base on 'one thing breaks' your hosed...

[yardape]

Thankyou all. I am in over my head but will keep hacking away at this. At the moment I have a cable running from my basement at the back of my townhouse up 2 flights to one of the front bedrooms. Wireless shireless. :jester:

[yardape]

Don't ask me how I did it but my WRT54GL is up and running WEP security. I understand this is not the best but I feel fortunate that I got this far. I also understand there is more secure encryption that rotates numbers to keep hackers from cracking your "code" but I don't think you can get there with XP and the software that Linksys provides. I'm thinking about trying Network Magic Which is free to download and use unless you want there full version at www.networkmagic.com

[RichP]

Wireless really is not there yet as far as secuity goes, as far as mac addresses go, it's easy enough to change one. There is enough free wardriving software out there to make it easy to scan and crack most wireless networks.
Now if you have a rotating keyfob :D tied into a server that changes the access code every 3 minutes you're a bit better off..