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4. ADSL Wireless Router Security - 3Com Routers.

1. Netgear D834G Router
2. ZyXEL 600 Series (Newtel)
3. Speedtouch 586 (Cable & Wireless)    
4. 3 Com Routers

Connecting to Wireless Network from a Laptop

Introduction

The very first thing you should do after installing a Router is change the default password. Without doing this everything else becomes a waste of time because all makes of router have a default username and password pre-installed and these are very widely known. For eg the username for most netgear routers out of the box is “admin” and the password is “password”, it's that simple. Buffalo, Linksys etc have similar setups see this site for a complete list of all default router user/passwords.

http://www.phenoelit.de/dpl/dpl.html

Anybody with access to your machine can log into the router and set it up to allow remote access in minutes, from there your network is an open book.

There are two types of Wireless Encryption, WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) and WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre Shared Key). WEP is easy to break remotely and is not secure, it's just a straight password. WPA is a lot more sophisticated and should be used if at all possible.

How to Set up Secure Wireless using WPA Encryption

4. 3Com Routers

With thanks to Gorilla who supplied the screenshots.

First make sure your router is set up and online by using the supplied instructions and login information from C&W or Newtel. When it is online and functioning correctly do the following to secure the wireless networking. But first before anything else change the default password for your router otherwise any security you apply is a total waste of time.

1. Change Default Password

Log into your router with a browser, type 192.168.1.1 and press the return key. Type admin in the box and select "Log In". This is the default password and should be changed.

2. When log in is complete look down the left hand side for "system tools" and select "admin password". Fill in the current password "admin" then a password of your choice in the next 2 boxes. Click "Apply".

Finally close down your browser / restart it then follow the secure wireless setup below.

2. Secure Wireless Setup

1.Log into your router setup screen by opening a browser and typing 192.168.1.1 into the address bar then press the return key. You will now be prompted for your new password as you have changed it above. When logged in go to click on "Wireless Settings" and ensure Wireless Networking is Enabled as shown below then click "Apply".

2. Next click on "Encryption" which will bring up the following screen.

3. Now change the security mode via the drop down box to "WPA-PSK (no server)" as shown below and click "Apply"

3. Now set the passphrase in the "Pre Shared Key (PSK), use letters and numbers about 10 or more, the longer the phrase the better the encryption.

OK thats the router configuration completed. Log out of the router configuration by shutting down the browser. It is a good idea to re-boot the router at this point by pulling the power, couunting 10, plug it in again and wait till it runs up and re-connects to the internet, then check internet connectivity is working and reboot your PC.

Next you need to set up your Laptop to connect to the secure wireless connection.

Connecting to Wireless Network