Romans
asked on
Neighbor Connecting to my wireless Router
Hello,
I noticed today that my neighbor's computer is in my Microsoft Windows Network list. Does this mean that he is connected to my router?
How can I make sure that nobody connects to my wireless router that I don't want to. I am not familiar with networking so I can use all the help I can get. My router is a Linksys WRT54G. All my computers at home are connected and I am sharing the drives between tem etc. Is it possible my neighbor has access to these as well?
Thnaks
Romans
I noticed today that my neighbor's computer is in my Microsoft Windows Network list. Does this mean that he is connected to my router?
How can I make sure that nobody connects to my wireless router that I don't want to. I am not familiar with networking so I can use all the help I can get. My router is a Linksys WRT54G. All my computers at home are connected and I am sharing the drives between tem etc. Is it possible my neighbor has access to these as well?
Thnaks
Romans
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
It means that he's within range and capable of using it. Whether or not he is, is another question. You can do a couple of things. First learn about WEP encryption, even though this is a weak encryption algorythm it will still weed out potential snoops on your network. Or you could enable MAC-Address filtering. Both of which should be explained in the manual. Neither are very difficult to implement, but you would need to have a basic understanding of networking for both.
This is a pretty typical thing that happens with Wireless, I wouldn't suspect them off the bat, only if you had reason to suspect that they might be using it. But, either way, you should definately investigate the above.
hth
This is a pretty typical thing that happens with Wireless, I wouldn't suspect them off the bat, only if you had reason to suspect that they might be using it. But, either way, you should definately investigate the above.
hth
You beat me to it Robin!
yep.
another case of wireless security not on in the router. You need to be plugged directly into the router. Configure it to use WPA with a preshared key. Make up a key that includes at least one number and a capitol letter. then change the advanced properties of your wireless connections to use the Network Authenication of WPA-PSK and the Data encription of TKIP. Do this on all your PC's. I would also change the ssid from linksys to anthing else and don't broadcast it. Your computers are the only ones that need to know the ssid. Again after that change you will need to change the ssid in the properties of the wireless connection on each of the PC's.
another case of wireless security not on in the router. You need to be plugged directly into the router. Configure it to use WPA with a preshared key. Make up a key that includes at least one number and a capitol letter. then change the advanced properties of your wireless connections to use the Network Authenication of WPA-PSK and the Data encription of TKIP. Do this on all your PC's. I would also change the ssid from linksys to anthing else and don't broadcast it. Your computers are the only ones that need to know the ssid. Again after that change you will need to change the ssid in the properties of the wireless connection on each of the PC's.
ASKER
Robing66066,
Thanks for all the info. It looks to me like all this are things I need to do to set up my router. What about each compupter in the house. I have Windows 98, XP Home eddition, and Widows XP Professional.
Do I need to do anything to each of these machines once I have reconfigured the router.
Romans
Thanks for all the info. It looks to me like all this are things I need to do to set up my router. What about each compupter in the house. I have Windows 98, XP Home eddition, and Widows XP Professional.
Do I need to do anything to each of these machines once I have reconfigured the router.
Romans
Do I need to do anything to each of these machines once I have reconfigured the router.
then change the advanced properties of your wireless connections to use the Network Authenication of WPA-PSK and the Data encription of TKIP. Do this on all your PC's. I would also change the ssid from linksys to anthing else and don't broadcast it. Your computers are the only ones that need to know the ssid. Again after that change you will need to change the ssid in the properties of the wireless connection on each of the PC's
then change the advanced properties of your wireless connections to use the Network Authenication of WPA-PSK and the Data encription of TKIP. Do this on all your PC's. I would also change the ssid from linksys to anthing else and don't broadcast it. Your computers are the only ones that need to know the ssid. Again after that change you will need to change the ssid in the properties of the wireless connection on each of the PC's
Not really. For the most part you do the security configuration on the router. The only thing you do on the workstation is match the configuration of the router and ensure that the card is in infrastructure mode rather than ad-hoc.
On caveat though. While your router may support an encryption protocol, your workstation may not. I'd install the worst machine you have first (The win98 box probably). See what level of security it will accept (it may not do WPA, it may only do WEP) and then decide if the lowered security setting is worth it or if you would rather remove the box or upgrade it.
Good luck!
On caveat though. While your router may support an encryption protocol, your workstation may not. I'd install the worst machine you have first (The win98 box probably). See what level of security it will accept (it may not do WPA, it may only do WEP) and then decide if the lowered security setting is worth it or if you would rather remove the box or upgrade it.
Good luck!
A line in the the second last paragraph didn't come in properly, it should read: "You can get this address by clicking “Start and then Run.”
Good luck!