Setup of Wireless LAN

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  • Martinco
    Gold Member

    • Oct 2008
    • 927

    #1

    Setup of Wireless LAN

    For those of you that might be interested......................

    Now that I have canned the wireless router setup in my home, I have gone ahead in doing a setup where I can now connect to the net/mail with either a PC/laptop or my cellphone using my own LAN and not having to pay the high cellphone accounts. This is provided you have an ADSL line !
    In essence this means I am connected to my ISP 24/7 without having to dial up first, and this is broadcast through my home all the time. ( You cannot do a dial up from your cell unless it is maybe the latest models )

    Well.....this is how I did it:

    The Wireless AP Router,

    Connect your AP Router to your PC/Laptop via a RJ45 cable. ( Normal LAN cable )
    Open your browser and enter the router IP address and U/N and P/W.
    You should now see the setup page for the router and somewhere a "wireless"
    option, click there and enable the wireless, this usually opens another option with a menu. Go to "basic" and enter the mode which should be "Access Point", next your SSID which is the name of your router e.g. "My connection" and the channel you want the system to use. ( This is to prevent your system and your neighbor's to clash )
    Next go to "security" and enter the encryption mode e.g. "WEP" "WPA" etc. If you chose WEP then you can chose to enter either 5 or 10 (Sometimes more depending on the router.) ASCI characters as a security code, obviously the more complicated the better BUT make sure you can remember the code or write it down because you are going to need this when you connect from the phone or PC. ( Just some advice..........do not use something easy like your name or car number and is always good to include special characters e.g. @,&,# ) Otherwise you might find other people hacking your code and using your internet account.
    "Apply" and reboot the router which is now set.
    Remove the RJ 45 cable

    Then, ensure that your PC/laptop/cellphone can "see" the w/l lan ( The access point router ). If you have a present setup that is working, then even better, but assuming you do not , then open the wireless section on your PC via control panel.......network connections......wireless and do a search. Your w/l router should show in this search. Go back to network connections, right click on the wireless connection icon, properties and "Internet Protocol" , properties, and click on "Obtain IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS automatically". Close, close until you are back at desktop.

    Now for the ADSL router.

    Connect the RJ 45 cable to the router and PC.
    Insert the router IP address into your browser and enter the U/name and P/w. You should now see the setup page for your router.
    Go to configuration ...WAN........Protocol ( some routers use different terminology ) In essence you want to arrive at the protocol that gives you various options e.g. "Bridge", "MPoA" and then "PPPoA" ( This is the option you want ). Select this option and enter your ISP provided u/name and P/W . There are other settings but leave those at default.
    Save your settings and reboot the router and reconnect the ADSL router to the wireless router with the cable.
    On the PC, you now open the wireless connections again and click on the "My connection" and then "connect". You will now be asked to enter the security code previously entered into the wireless router. You only need to enter once !
    Now open your browser again and go to any URL
    If everything worked fine you should now be able to wirelessly and dialuplessly connect to the internet.

    I certainly hope I have not left out anything but if so I apologize but please ask.
    Martin Coetzee
    Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
    We solve your fastening problems.
    www.straptite.com

    You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011
  • Martinco
    Gold Member

    • Oct 2008
    • 927

    #2
    Just some feedback on this system.

    Some clever bastard hacked into my LAN and used some 2.5 gig of my bandwidth over the weekend ! And I thought I had a pretty strong password ! So, be careful and use a password that is close to impossible to break and change this every now and then.
    I am sure this guy must have used software to scan for passwords because what I have used is impossible to guess.
    The other possibility is that he accessed the W/L router ( also password protected but not so difficult ) and thereby got to the W/L connection key.
    Was it not for the fact that I only had 3 gig loaded on my account, it could have cost me a packet !
    Well........we live and learn.
    Martin Coetzee
    Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
    We solve your fastening problems.
    www.straptite.com

    You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

    Comment

    • IanF
      Moderator

      • Dec 2007
      • 2680

      #3
      Martin
      Can't you lock down your LAN to trusted devices with the MAC addresses. We do this at home just you have to allow the new devices when they try connect.
      Only stress when you can change the outcome!

      Comment

      • Martinco
        Gold Member

        • Oct 2008
        • 927

        #4
        Yes, MAC addresses would be the answer but a bit of a schlep ! Will however not solve the problem if the guy hacked into my W/L Router and change the settings.
        Martin Coetzee
        Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
        We solve your fastening problems.
        www.straptite.com

        You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

        Comment

        • irneb
          Gold Member

          • Apr 2007
          • 625

          #5
          Usually those routers can only be configured through the RJ45 cable connections - not a wireless connection (for this exact security issue). And yes even though it's a schlep - you're a whole lot better off using MAC access control than any other form of password / keycode / etc. And it's not that much of a schlep in any case, the biggest thing is to get hold of each allowed MAC address (which is usually just an ipconfig away).

          Having said that, I did this exact thing for my dad over December. At first he didn't like the idea of sharing his iBurst modem on the wireless directly, so he wanted me to share it through one of the PC's .... I'd highly advise against such (now) for it caused untold misery (mixing XP, Vista and Win7 does not work well with this). So ended up resetting the router and starting from scratch with the modem connected to an RJ45. Worked off the cuff, but the 1st thing I did was change Access Control to MAC addressing. Then on all the laptops I did an ipconfig /all to get hold of their wireless's MAC, then added those to the allowed list.

          But then my sister had to be the odd one out, she's got a Mac Book ... and how exactly do you find the MAC address on a Mac? After about 5min of searching (no I don't want the contacts list ... #%@&!* Apple!) I finally got hold of what Apple calls "Physical Address". And that worked just fine.
          Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves. - Norm Franz
          And central banks are the slave clearing houses

          Comment

          • Martinco
            Gold Member

            • Oct 2008
            • 927

            #6
            How do I get the MAC of my Nokia E66 ?
            Martin Coetzee
            Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
            We solve your fastening problems.
            www.straptite.com

            You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

            Comment

            • daveob
              Email problem

              • Feb 2008
              • 655

              #7
              Originally posted by Martinco
              Just some feedback on this system.

              Some clever bastard hacked into my LAN and used some 2.5 gig of my bandwidth over the weekend !
              Are you sure it wasn't some script that was running in an open browser window, that kept refreshing itself ?

              Had that on my wife's PC last month and it chewed up 1gb overnight. In the morning I was able to see the traffic on the network connection status window, so it was definately her PC ( after AfriHost sent me an e-mail about an automated bandwidth top-up ). She likes to leave everything open overnight and just continue in the morning.

              I added 2 .bat files to the desktop that she uses to kill / restore the PCs IP address, effectively making the network adapter disconnected when away from the PC.

              fyi, the 2 commands in the .bat files ( took me an hour on google to find these ) are :
              ipconfig /release "Local Area Connection"
              ipconfig /renew "Local Area Connection"

              This does the same as physically unplugging the network cable.
              Last edited by daveob; 18-Jan-11, 02:35 PM.
              Watching the ships passing by.

              Comment

              • Martinco
                Gold Member

                • Oct 2008
                • 927

                #8
                Not that................I had no PC's even switched on over the weekend. Spend some quality time in bed with a good book and the gentle sound of the rain on my neighbors roof ! And funny .....the downloads started at 1 AM on Saturday and ended on 11PM when I ran out of bandwidth. Luckily I did not activate the automatic top up with Afrihost.
                Thanks for the . bat files !
                Martin Coetzee
                Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
                We solve your fastening problems.
                www.straptite.com

                You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

                Comment

                • IanF
                  Moderator

                  • Dec 2007
                  • 2680

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Martinco
                  How do I get the MAC of my Nokia E66 ?
                  Martin go to your router web address normally 192.168.1.1 and you should see trusted workstations there. You can copy the addresses to trusted side then allow trusted only.
                  This is from memory as I have this at home. We have a wired network in the business.
                  If you still need more info I will look at home later.
                  This should show all connected device MAC addresses.
                  Only stress when you can change the outcome!

                  Comment

                  • twinscythe12332
                    Gold Member

                    • Jan 2007
                    • 769

                    #10
                    Another thing that helps: Hide your SSID. Anyone actually looking for networks to crack won't see it immediately.
                    THe MAC address tip is also a good one, I use that with my wireless network device.
                    do not use WEP. if you have a wireless router with WEP, throw it in the bin. I am serious. WEP is the easiest to crack, and has been around for a pretty long time. WPA/WPA2 with AES is a much more secure option.

                    Comment

                    • Martinco
                      Gold Member

                      • Oct 2008
                      • 927

                      #11
                      Originally posted by IanF
                      Martin go to your router web address normally 192.168.1.1 and you should see trusted workstations there. You can copy the addresses to trusted side then allow trusted only.
                      Ian, I had a look. My LAN router does not have any "trusted workstations " option. I think I shall go the MAC address route and just add machines as required.
                      Martin Coetzee
                      Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
                      We solve your fastening problems.
                      www.straptite.com

                      You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

                      Comment

                      • irneb
                        Gold Member

                        • Apr 2007
                        • 625

                        #12
                        Originally posted by Martinco
                        How do I get the MAC of my Nokia E66 ?
                        Not sure exactly how to obtain that particular phone's mac. Maybe try this: http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/...AC/td-p/341837

                        Or as the 4th posts states: Turn of mac access on your router (TEMPORARILY) ... connect with only your phone to the wireless. Open the config page(s) on a PC connected through the cable and browse to a page showing active connections (sorry it depends what model / make AP router you've got). This should show the mac and what IP is assigned to it through the router's DHCP.
                        Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves. - Norm Franz
                        And central banks are the slave clearing houses

                        Comment

                        • Martinco
                          Gold Member

                          • Oct 2008
                          • 927

                          #13
                          Fantastic !!!! You are a star. Got the MAC via the web instructions
                          Martin Coetzee
                          Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
                          We solve your fastening problems.
                          www.straptite.com

                          You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

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