Securing wireless network

[Raptor]

What would be the best way to secure my Wireless networking using a Linksys WRT54G
Wireless-G Broadband Router and a WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter with Windows XP?

What protocol? What shared key phrase? What is a shared key phrase? Any tutorials?

[SilentAssasin64]

The best way would to be using a WPA encryption with a VERY strong password.  Try https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm for a really good password.  The ones given there are strong enough to take a lifetime to crack.

[Raptor]

I did that and I copied the entire 63 characters into the WPA2 AES+TKIS (Or something like that) shared key phrase and then Windows gives me some error about.. (See screenshot)

Not filling out the password properly even though I just copied the entire key phrase I used with WPA2 into the password bar that is required to be filled out when connecting to a wireless WPA2 network.

Does this make sense?

[downundersteve]

Hi
there are a few things you can try
Firstly can you connect using WEP and a poor key, say  something like 12345678.
This gives weakest security, near enough as bad as not having any but it will test you connection is OK.

If it does connect using WEP then use WPA-PSK
Ensure you have matching ssid's in both the router and your NIC
Make sure you don't have any other security or antivirus running while you are testing this.
You can turn it all back on afterwards.
When I say security I mean  turn off firewall in XP, (either XP firewall, keiro, zone alarm or whatever you use) and router firewall
No IP filtering
No MAC adddress filtering
Infact no filtering at all, get the idea.

(once it's up and running this can be turned on one at a time).

As for securing it further, just get it working to WEP, then WPA and we'll take it from there.

steve

[Rob Pomeroy]

And what Steve was JUST about to say is that before you turn off all of this protection, you will of course unplug your internet connection.

[Raptor]

WEP and poor keys do work, but I do not understand what kind of format I have to use for the shared key phrase when I choose WPA2.

[soybean]

I'm under the impression the shared key phrase can be any string of characters you create, from 8 - 63 characters.  Have you tried something other than that 63-character string you copied from somewhere?

You might download this User Guide and do some searching in it: User Guide.   I know page 50 mentions the "shared key".

[2k_dummy]

Look in network properties and select the wireless card. Not the tcp/ip but the basic card listing. In its properties, under the advanced tab, there should be an entry for encryption. Select it and it should give you a box to choose the type of encryption to use. Choose the one you want, but make sure the card and router are using the same type. After a reboot, look in the cards configuration utility (in the system tray) and make sure that everything there is properly configured, including the encryption key.

[Raptor]

Look in network properties and select the wireless card. Not the tcp/ip but the basic card listing. In its properties, under the advanced tab, there should be an entry for encryption. Select it and it should give you a box to choose the type of encryption to use. Choose the one you want, but make sure the card and router are using the same type. After a reboot, look in the cards configuration utility (in the system tray) and make sure that everything there is properly configured, including the encryption key.

That seemed to have somewhat done the trick, although I still can't connect.

What protocol do you suggest I use, WPA2 and AES?

What is "Key group renewal" and what should it be set to?

[2k_dummy]

 

What protocol do you suggest I use, WPA2 and AES?  
 
What is "Key group renewal" and what should it be set to?

WPA provides better security.

Key Group Renewal is the amount of time the router waits to renew the keys. It can be set to default (7200) but 3600 is recommended.

Register MAC addresses of Network PC’s on Router

   1. Obtain the MAC addresses of each PC that will be on your network. This can be done by doing the following on each of the PC’s that will be on your network:
          * Click Start and choose Run
          * Type cmd and click OK
          * Type ipconfig /all
          * Locate “Physical Address” (It should look something like 00-01-CA-XX-21-10)
          * This is the MAC address. Repeat this on each computer that is connected to your network and take note of these numbers.
   2. Back in the LinkSys configuration screen, choose the “Advanced” tab from the top.
   3. Verify “Filters” is the secondary tab currently selected.
   4. Select Enabled in “Filtered MAC Address”
   5. Select “Permit PC’s listed below to access the wireless network”.
   6. Enter the MAC addresses of each of the PC’s that will be part of your wireless network.
   7. Choose Save Settings.

In the computers network settings there should be a tab to display wireless networks. If there is more than one SSID listed, make sure yours is at the top of the list.

[Raptor]

Somehow I can't get it done, I did it exactly as you said multiple times but I end up not being able to connect to the network. At one point I was able to connect (Without any type of security added) but I could only send packets and not receive them for some bizzare reason.

Guess I just need to experiment a bit more till I finally get it right, thanks for the information.