how do i know if my wifi is secure and what do i need to secure it?
411610
There are entire books published on wireless security, but here's all you need to know for your home WiFi LAN: WPA2-PSK.  In most cases, WPA refers to pre-standard stuff, while WPA2 refers to the properly implemented IEEE 802.11i security standard.  The PSK is for Pre-Shared Key, which means you will configure the same password/passphrase on all of your equipment.  If your router or access point and wireless interface cards support WPA/WPA2, this is what you should be using.  If you have older equipment that does not support WPA/WPA2 then at least turn on 128-bit WEP.  WEP has known weaknesses (at any key length) and can be "easily" broken.  In reality, while the encryption itself might be easy to break, it's beyond the desire or capability of the average home user.  Try it sometime.  It takes a bit of work.  Basically, I like to say that WEP will keep your honest neighbors honest.  If you are using WEP, change your key once a month or once a week, just to piss off anyone who has cracked your key so they'll have to break it again and they will give up.  WPA or WPA2 will make you bulletproof in the average neighborhood or apartment complex.  Make sure that you choose a decent length password for the WPA pre-shared key.  They can be up to 63 characters long, the longer the better.  Finally, don't forget to use wireless MAC address filtering too.  You put the 48-bit MAC address from your computers into the access point so it will only allow those devices to communicate with it.  Get your MAC addresses typically using the "ipconfig /all" on a PC or "ifconfig -a" on most Unix boxes.  Lastly, change the default password on your router, and disable any type of remote management options.  One more thing, you can also disable SSID Broadcast, but this is not really meant to be a security feature, it's more to prevent accidental associations, and your neighbors wouldn't "see" your network, unless they knew how to look for it.  And of course, nothing is 100% secure, so also be sure to have your computers protected with the latest security package that has at least a personal firewall and virus scanner, such as McAfee SecurityCenter or Norton's.
689446
Go to the manufactures web site and you will find instructions for setting up security, probably a user manual or some such
538930
You have to enable WEP or WPA Security on your Wireless Router.  WPA is the best protection for wireless router now.  WEP is crackable but it's better than nothing.  Normally the password for Linksys router is "linksys" (Without Quotations) If it's not try the word password, if that's not it reset your router to the original factory settings and check your documentation for the default password.\nCheck these articles from linksys\nhttp://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1116602204044&packedargs=site%3DUS&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper\nhttp://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1116519873380&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper
1095536
Make sure you set the Data encryption and network key for your router. It an encrypt all your wireless data and make sure no one can use your wireless access unless they know your network key. Although no security is 100% secure, but at least it is a good enough protection for home wireless network.
965273
It is probably asking for the WEP or WPA encryption code. You will have to get that from the routers configuration.
1108813
To make your situation worse, you are currently login with administrative access and has no password assigned to your account. That's a disaster. :D\n\n\nYou definetely want to secure your wireless AND your computer.\n\nsee Linksys website to get general idea about securing wireless network:\n\nhttp://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1114037291212&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper\n\nHope it helps...
764586
It's tough to explain without your router model.  Basically, you sign on to your router through your internet browser, go to the wireless settings section, enable WPA encryption, enter a password, save, and then reconnect to the router by entering the password on your computer.\n\nThe best thing to do is to go to the website of the manufacturer of your router and see if they have a good walkthrough.\n\nThis is the only site I found that would make any sense at all to a beginner:\nhttp://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,115066/printable.html
630649
you don't need a router - you need a wireless network adapter, and either the password to a secured network, or you can find an unsecured network and use it.  \n\nif you use a search engine, you may find a directory for public-access wireless portals in your area.  there are also "sniffers" that you can buy that will alert you to the presence of a wireless connection.\n\n"stealing" is wrong.  be legit, and you will win.
20519
Tim - your priorities are in reverse order. Turning off the SSID, while probably a good idea, is not at all secure. You really need to turn on encryption. WEP is better than nothing, but is fairly easy to break. To really make your network secure, you need to use WPA2 encryption (or just WPA if your computer doesn't support WPA2, but WPA2 is better), and, of course, change the default password.\n\nMy own home network has a hidden SSID with WPA2 encryption and a good password.
55150
I take it you are on a wireless network. You need to adjust your security settings on your computer.
178659
Another thing you can do is turn off "broadcast ssid" in your router's set up screen. You will, however, then need to remember the name of the network in order to connect to it, it wont show up in the  list anymore. You can do this along with the aforementioned encryption if you're feeling paranoid about it.
877601
Login as administrator, and check under Security settings.\n\nRouter's setup a webpage were you can login and do this. just goto the router's IP. (like http://192.168.0.1/). Login as admin. Check under something like Security or Encryption.
343283
A reasonably good protection can be reached by defining WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) or WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access).\n\nWEP - short for Wired Equivalent Privacy, a security protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs) defined in the 802.11b/g standard. WEP is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired LAN. LANs are inherently more secure than WLANs because LANs are somewhat protected by the physicalities of their structure, having some or all part of the network inside a building that can be protected from unauthorized access. WLANs, which are over radio waves, do not have the same physical structure and therefore are more vulnerable to tampering. WEP aims to provide security by encrypting data over radio waves so that it is protected as it is transmitted from one end point to another.\n\nWPA - short for Wi-Fi Protected Access, a Wi-Fi standard that was designed to improve upon the security features of WEP. The technology is designed to work with existing Wi-Fi products that have been enabled with WEP (i.e., as a software upgrade to existing hardware), but the technology includes two improvements over WEP: \n- 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. \n- 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-specific 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.\n\nYou have now to check what of the two security protocols is supported on all your wireless clients. This is what you can get. It's not possible to run both security protocols at the same time.\nFurthermore i suggest to use MAC filtering. In the router setup program you will find it under the Tab "Wireless" and there you have to enter all MAC addresses of all wireless clients in your network. MAC addresses are printed on the sticker of every NIC (Network Interface Card).\nMost important is for sure you change your router password, so no other person can get access to it and change your settings.\nAnd finally to have running all fine, the SSID (Service Set Identifier) have to be the same on the router as well as in all wireless clients.\n\nHappy wireless networking ;-)
190659
First and foremost, you should probably secure your wireless network. WEP is not particularly secure, but will prevent at least casual intruders from gaining access to your network. WPA is a bit more secure. \n\n1. There is no easy way to figure out who is using your wireless network. if someone is using it, the computer will probably be close (300 ft), but if you are really interested, you will need something like a wireless packet sniffer installed to see what kind of traffic is flowing through your network\n\n2. An intruder will be able to see all of your information if do have not secured your network using something like WEP. These days most web sites use HTTPS to encrypt credit cards and passwords (which would mean that the intruder cannot see them), but you should still secure your network.\n\n3. Zone alarm will potentially protect you, but not if it is installed between your DSL / phone line and your wireless access point (remember that if the intruder can get into your wireless network, they can directly connect to your computer). There are a number of changes you can make to minimize the risk of somebody gaining access to your computer (e.g., if you are using windows, don't enable file sharing, make sure the latest patches are installed, etc.), but generally there are always some holes a determined intruder can use to get access to your data. Again, best way to prevent this is to enable wireless security....\n\nMore info:\n\n"Sorta liek creating a decoy unsecured network,tempting an intruder and then monitoring his tracks as to what he'll be upto wid such a network.Will i be able to gain the info of his computer username.So basically, does the intrusion work both ways wen i have created the network.? thanks again. cheers."\n\nYes, and this is called a 'honey trap' system (http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=honeytrap+security&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=ytff1-&x=wrt). Using a sniffer, you can try two things (based on his level of sophistication):\n\n1. watch what the intruder does, and hope that by passively observing the traffic, you get some insight about identify, etc.\n\n2. actively try to break into the intruder's system, really doing the same thing to him (though not sure how legal this is)\n\nHope this help...
100585
Yes, what about it? Complete sentances are a good thing.\n\nWill assume you mean how do I setup my wireless Linksys router with SBC aDSL so that my wirless network is secure?\n\nWhat Linksys product do you have? What wireless devices do you have and what do they support?\n\nWEP is not secure but better than nothing. MAC address filtering is something else to help stop users from connecting to your network but again it is not secure. For the average home users we setup WPA-PSK with a strong key, turn off SSID broadcasting and MAC filtering if all devices support that.
15788
1. Disable SSID broadcast because it sends tells outsiders that you have a wireless network available.\n2. Enable MAC address filtering.  Each wireless card has it's own unique ID.  Filtering makes it so that only your friends' computers can connect.  However, a good hacker can bypass this.\n3. Enable the use of a WEP or WPA encryption key.  This will scramble the data as it travels through the air so outsiders can't eavesdrop.  However, you'll have to share this key (string of characters) with your friends before they connect.  Also, WEP keys are weak and can be cracked by persistent hackers of moderate skill.
311365
security.  You must have a security implementation of encryption otherwise you are sharing everything with anybody over the air.\nthat's the downside of wireless, unless you use WEP (at a minimum) or ideally WPA-PSK, WEP can still be cracked, but may not be worth the hackers time