Hi all,

I see you are not to busy down here. Thought maybe someone could do a bit of teaching if you have the time.

I have a Lynksys Wireless Point Router with a 4-port switch.

I am curious to learn about the configuration screen. I don't know what all of it means (maybe nothing to me as far as changing but....)

First I will see if you are interested and if so, great, if not, that is ok too. I don't need to learn this, just want to.

Oh, by the way, I will be leaving this friday for vacation and won't be back till 22 or 23. So no rush.

Hey, Taz, I am a real Linksys fan and would be happy to help you play with the config screens. Let me know which model you have (my router is the WRT54G) and I will download the manual in pdf to see if there are any differences. Once you get back from the vacation we can go through the config and make sure that you are at the current stable firmware level.

Great!

Model #:
BEFW11S4 ver.2

I will post back end of next week when I get back from vacation.

Thanks alot!

You are on, Taz. I've got the User Guide in pdf and the firmware revision history downloaded so when you get back we can rock and roll.

i go with you two... kinda familiar with linksys routers as well of any model number...

count me in, guys!

Put us on your calendar, Jaina, remember that Taz is going to be gone until the end of next week so don't think that we disappeared. In the meantime keep an eye on this place as more questions are bound to pop up.

Welcome to the CCSP forums!

yeah sure oldfrog!!!

i'll be waiting for you two...

Hi,

I'm back and ready to learn. Ok, I have typed in the 192.168.1.1, typed in my password and see the first page which is the Setup Page.

I have nothing listed in Host Name or Domain name and assume nothing needs to be there since I am online. I do see that it says beside those that some ISP's require, mine must not.

Next is LAN IP Address which is 192.168.1.1 which I am assuming is my router IP address????

Wirless is enabled, which I understand, since this is a wireless access point. (Why would you disable??)

SSID - linksys (I understand this also)

Allow "Broadcast" SSID to associate - that is selected yes - I don't know if I understand this. I am assuming "Broadcast" means that the router is saying "hey, I am here and I am broadcasting this, and this is my IP" ???? Am I close??

Channel - 6 (what is this???)

WEP - disabled (what is this???)

WAN connection type - Obtain an IP automatically. (I assume it is set to this because I have cable modem?? and isn't that IP dynamic??

Ok, that is it for first page, I will let you explain what you can and then we can go on to another page.

Hi Taz, welcome back.

1) You are correct on the host and domain names

2) 192.168.1.1 is the IP address for your router on the LAN side. This is unrelated to the address assigned to the WAN port by your ISP.

3) You understand the function of this. When I first bought mine I needed a router, had no wireless requirement, but wanted to include it for future expansion. Up until I actually had the need I kept it disabled for security reasons.

4) SSID - linksys: Not good from a security standpoint. Every hacker/bandwidth pirate in the world knows that that is the default SSID for Linksys routers. We want to change that to something unique to you. We also don't want to forget what it is.

5) SSID Broadcast: You are essentially correct. This is similar to the Service Advertisement Protocol (SAP) in Netware and the router literally advertises itself by name over the airwaves. Now, to join a wireless network you have to know the name of the network. If you are advertising your name you make it easier for anyone driving past the house with a laptop to see the net and try getting in. I always turn this feature off.

6) Channels: IEEE 802.11b/g devices work in the 2.4gHz band but there are a lot of them. To avoid congestion there are a number of channels at different frequencies within the band. You do not normally need to worry about changing the channel unless you are experiencing interference from another device or network.

7) WEP: Wired Equivalent Privacy is the strongest encryption method currently available for .11 networks. I keep it enabled. Once it is enabled you can select either a 64bit or 128bit encryption key. 128bit is stronger but can also slow down the network. Your choices here are yours based on what you have shared and what you may have crossing the wireless link.

You are correct on the WAN connection type information.

I gave some of these rather short shrift. Drop down to the Wireless forum and scan through a topic that I posted there called "We're not in Kansas..." for some additional insights on wireless network security.

Great, I will go check out that topic you suggested and then I will come back.

The SSID, can I change it to whatever I want? When I do change it, what does that mean for me?

The SSID broad cast, that is advertising the SSID - linksys? Or am I missunderstanding? And if I turn it off, how does that affect my wireless laptop or does it not affect it? What I am gathering is, I change the SSID, turn off broadcasting and it will not advertise my SSID that I will be changing, but it won't affect my laptop because......not sure.

If you have ever set up home networking between PC's you have noticed that the default network name comes up as Mshome. This means that there are easily over a million nets out there using that name. SSID is the same sort of thing. Changing it will not affect you in the least but will make it much more difficult for anyone else to get on your network.

When your wireless PC joins a network it specifically asks permission to join a particular net. Public hotspots advertise their SSID, your system sees it, and you join it. If the SSID were not broadcast you could still join it but would need to know the name of the network. By changing your own you force anyone else to try to guess your net name. You simply tell your laptop that it will be connecting to tAznET037 or whatever. You're in, the others are at least delayed.

Ok, this is fun! I am learning. Need to learn more now.

I read your article. I had already changed the password to the router so that was good.

I changed the SSID name and turned off broadcasting. But...... I have an excellent signal on the laptop, just can't get on the internet now. Not sure what to do. When I double click on the wireless icon and go to wireless Networks, I see in the bottom box the new wireless network name and the linksys. The linksys has the red x through it and the new one has a good signal. The firewall is off in XP, so I checked that. Went to my desktop and typed in the 192.168.1.1 and I see that my changes are still there. New SSID and Broadcast "No". What am I missing on the laptop??

Oh, my network is not called MSHOME, so that is good.

There should be a utility on the laptop that allows you to see and configure wireless connections. Mine has an input field for "Preferred SSID". I simply changed that to the name of the new SSID. Do you not have something like that?

Hi,

Well, I am back online with the laptop. I called linksys. I still have the renamed SSID but they told me to enable broadcast. Which I did. I also needed to create an Internet Gateway connection again. So, I don't know if I can disable the broadcast. I am not a networking person by any means. Can you believe I took 3 networking classes! I didn't learn much. Too much book work and not enough hands on stuff. When you do it for real it seems to be a whole different story.

Anyway, should I enable the WEP?

Now, the next tab on the site is Password. It has router password which I don't know what that is. Is that password different from what you use when you open the 192.168.1.1 because I notice that in the password line on the password page has a whole bunch more dots next to it than the password I use to get in.

uPnP Services is enabled. I don't know wht uPnP is.

I understand Restore Factory Defaults.

If you have any suggestions on the broadcast let me know. At least I have a different SSID name though. Except that name is being broadcast correct? And anyone driving by can see it? I'm still fuzzy on this. I understand the broadcast. I am not sure how to ask this, as far as wording. Ok, my laptop is getting the broadcast on the wireless signal so it knows that there is a connection out there to use. If it is off, how does my laptop get the signal that it is there? I am sure there is a way, I just don't know how to do it and Linksys was no help there and told me it needed to be on.

Okay, I would not enable the WEP at this point. It bothers me that you can't turn off the broadcast as that was rather seamless when I did it. Before we can do that or enable WEP you will have to locate the config screens for the wireless connection on your laptop. Those are normally provided by the wireless NIC vendor.

I am not real sure what the second password would be for. I will certainly look it up in your manual.

uPnP is Universal Plug and Play. Since it is enabled and working let's leave it that way.

I have really been straining to come up with an analogy that will explain the SSID Broadcast scenario. Imagine that you went to a party and everybody was going to play a game. The rules are simple. You can talk to anyone that you like so long as you address them by name. If you address them without using their name or with an incorrect name they will not answer. Some of the people are talking away and every few sentences saying "my name is Jane (or whatever)". You can talk to these folks just fine. These folks have SSID broadcast enabled. Some others are talking away but never say their name. YOu can hear them but you can't join in their conversation. These folks have SSID broadcast disabled. Note that in either case you can clearly hear what is being said. It is not too difficult to build equipment which will do the same thing with the data on a wireless network. That is why encryption schemes become important.