Manage Wireless Security on your router

What is Wireless?

Wireless or Wi-Fi technology is another way of connecting your computer to the network without using wires. Wi-Fi uses radio frequency to connect wirelessly, so you have the freedom to connect computers anywhere in your home or offce network.

Some of my friends who own a wireless router at home always ask me how they could assign wireless security, because they are thinking that somebody near their house will connect to their network. Well that might happen.   Managing the wireless security on a wireless router is easy if you have the basic knowledge in router configuration utility like

Knowing your router IP address
Accessing the router configuration utility thru a browser
Understanding of wireless security level

If you want to know how to know your router IP address and how to access it, go to this page How to access the router

All about Wireless Security level

Most of the wireless routers will offer the following security level:

• WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2)     
• WPA2-PSK (Pre-Shared Key)
• WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)        
• WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key)
• WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy

There are things you must know first before securing your WI-FI

• WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. It is based on the IEEE 802.11 standard and uses the RC4 encryption algorithm. 
• WEP provides security by encrypting data over your wireless network so that it is protected as it is transmitted from one wireless device to another.
• To gain access to a WEP network, you must know the key. The key is a string of characters that you create. 
• When using WEP, you must determine the level of encryption. The type of encryption determines the key length. 
• 128-bit encryption requires a longer key than 64-bit encryption. 
• Keys are defined by entering in a string in HEX (hexadecimal - using characters 0-9, A-F) or ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange – alphanumeric characters) format. 
• ASCII format is provided so you can enter a string that is easier to remember. The ASCII string is converted to HEX for use over the network. Four keys can be defined so that you can change keys easily.

• WPA, or Wi-Fi Protected Access, is a Wi-Fi standard that was designed to improve the security features of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).  

The 2 major improvements over WEP: 

1. Improved data encryption through the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). TKIP scrambles the keys using a hashing algorithm and, by adding an integrity-checking feature, ensures that the keys haven’t been tampered with. WPA2 is based on 802.11i and uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) instead of TKIP.
2. User authentication, which is generally missing in WEP, through the extensible authentication protocol (EAP). WEP  regulates access  to a wireless network based on a computer’s hardware-specifc MAC address, which is relatively simple to be sniffed out and stolen. EAP is built on a more secure public-key encryption system to ensure that only authorized network users can access the network.

• WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK uses a passphrase or key to authenticate your wireless connection. The key is an alpha-numeric password between 8 and 63 characters long. The password can include symbols (!?*&_) and spaces. This key must be the exact same key entered on your wireless router or access point.
• WPA/WPA2 incorporates user authentication through the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). EAP is built on a more secure public key encryption system to ensure that only authorized network users can access the network.

So how you could configure your wireless security? In this tutorial we will be using the DLINK DIR-300 Wireless router as an example so follow these steps:

1. Log into the web-based confguration by opening a web browser and entering the IP address of the router  Click on Wireless Settings on the left side.

2. Click Manual Wireless Setup 

3. Click the drop down arrow to choose which security level to use. 

4. You may also input the name for your WI-FI so you could see it under when your computer detect the signal. 

4. Save it when done. Now its now time to test your connection. On your notification area look for the signal of your router. 

 5. Click connect Automatically so you wont repeat the connection again.

 6. Enter the Passphrase you input on your router. It must be eaxctly the same.

 7. Now your connected. Congratulations!

How to Block Website on a wireless router (DLINK DIR-300)

Blocking Website means preventing the computer units connected on your network to access a specified webpage or website. This could be done in different ways. In this tutorial, a DLINK wireless router is used to block a website on a network.

Note to do this, you need the following: 

1. You already know how to access your own router! No idea yet? well, read this tutorial - Accessing the router 

2. Your router is the DHCP server. This means that your router is the gateway and the one giving each unit an IP address. 

3. You have the list of malicious websites and of course, all the porn sites.

So if your done up there, then let's do it!

1. Access your router and go to your Parental Control Option 

2. On the Parental Control Option Click the drop down arrow on Configure Parental Control box and use
"Turn Parental Control On and Prevent computers to access only these sites"

3. Make a Schedule if you want. You could control the schedule by clicking the Add new button