Help needed to secure wireless internet
Hi babblers.
I'm hoping someone out there can help me with what's probably an easy tehno-problem, but I have no idea where to begin.
So, I moved a month ago and have been restricted by being plugged in directly to my modem. I'm finally sick of tripping over wires all over my living room. So just today I plugged in my old-ish wireless router. I bought it over 4 years ago. One the side it reads D-Link 802.11g / 2.4Ghz. Whatever that means. If it matters.
So I plugged it into my Rogers cable router and presto I have wireless, it works great. Only it's not locked or secured. My low-tech security plan, until I get some assistance, is to unplug the wireless router when I'm not using it, like at night, when all the "movie downloaders who steal wireless signals" seem to do all their work. Yes I realize my plan is flawed, given how much I'm online (I work from home).
Is there a relatively simple procedure that someone can walk me through, either in this thread or via private message, to encode my signal?
I have a Macbook if that matters.
Thanks!
I've never done this for a Mac. But in case no one else volunteers, this is where I wouild start.
Open internet browser and try this url address to log in to your D-Link router: http://192.168.0.1
If that doesn't work, then I don't know what the address might be to access and edit your router configuration. If it does work, then most of the configuration should be good to go except for these next items:
A) Your wireless network name aka SSID. This will be your network name. Make it something unique that none of your neighbors or CSIS spooks in the van outside will be able to figure out.
B) Wireless encryption (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). You;ll prolly be prompted to provide a pass phrase which your router will use to create several keys. Make your pass phrase unique and long ie. again, to evade nosy neighbors and those weirdos in the van out on the street.
C) Administrative password access to your network. Dont let it be a word found in the dictionary. Make it alphanumeric to increase chances of fooling nosy neighbors... and those guys driving around in the van outside.
And for the last step you may have to ask someone who knows. Maybe this will be good enough?: How to Connect a Macbook Air to a Wireless Network
If you forget your key, there will be a little hole in the back of the router by the power supply port. Use a paper clip to press the little button down for ten seconds or so, and the router will be default to factory settings.
It won't matter if you have a Mac or PC.
Follow Fidel's instructions and you should be fine.
Ah yes, that's the old insert a paper clip in the hole at the back o' the router and depressing the reset button for 10 seconds trick. I've seen it before. Good one to remember.
Hey thanks Fidel and Jingles. It's asking for a user name and password but I've not ever used it so I don't think I set it up with one. And what's this key you speak of? I fear I'm revealing myself to be massively computer illiterate, but I've not done any of this set-up stuff before.
I did the paper clip trick. It's still asking for a name and password.
Just try admin as the username and leave the password blank, then see what happens.
On mine the username was admin, and the default password was admin as well.
Yes, try the password: admin
And, I believe you should be able to save your configuration to the hard drive for if and when you ever do a firmware upgrade or move and have to setup the network again. Some people write the admin password on paper and tape it to the bottom of the router. Not good if you have a lot of strangers rummaging through your house and stuff though. But it is an excellent idea to password protect your router to prevent that nosy kid down the street from logging on to your router and playing head games with you. He could reset or lock you out of your router, or something, and because your setup is wireless.
And, your passphrase is a usually an alphabetic or alphanumeric secret phrase of your choosing when you setup the router. It's like a backup for your password, only it's not the actual password and is supposed to be something even easier to remember than your carefully chosen big long password which nobody can figure out including yourself now that you've forgotten it. The passphrase is then encrypted to create a key code of some number of bits. Anyway the way it works is like this:
If you can't remember the password to the router but can remember the easy to remember passphrase you might have chosen to create and entered into the configuration before when setting up the router, you can re-encrypt the passphrase and use the encryption keys to access your router configuration setup. Here is a web page that sometimes works to encode your passphrase from ASCII(alphabetic or alphanumeric) to hexadecimal, and use the hex conversion generated by the following web page to try to log in to your router. wepkey.com That's if its WEP encrypted
Here is a web page for WPA key conversion. Never tried them, so I don't know if they actually work or not.
If you can't get the password/user name combo to work (the default I mean) just do a search on Google for the router and default password/user name.
Just get the model name of your router first. It should be on the router itself.
Good luck!
Thanks people! It's not working yet but I'm going to keep trying.
try logging into
thecomputermechanics.com
they are very nice there and Im sure one of the techies will help you no charge
DLink default password list
Maysie, look on the left-hand column of the above web page, and see if any of those products match the product name on your router, bottom, front, side or wherever it is. D-Link's Username and password might be any of these combinations:
admin (none)
(none) admin
admin admin
Also I noticed on another web page, DLink sometimes uses the default password smcadmin, but I think it's for their DSL routers only.
Thanks again everyone.
Damn this is frustrating.
I think it's possible that the router was used before, and may have been programmed with a username and password that has now gone down the memory hole of both me and my ex. Clearly the reset button fancy schmancy method (which I've done a few times, including turning it off first) isn't resetting that.
I've tried all those combos [admin (none), (none) admin, admin admin], thanks, but it's not working. Argh.
http://www.dlink.ca/support/
And give 'em hell.
http://www.geckoandfly.com/5890/reset-d-link-router-factory-settings-and...
This has a list of all default master passwords.
Hey I'm in!! It seems I had to hold the paperclip on the reset button for 10 seconds and I was a bit hasty.
Thanks babblers!
Um, another question.
It's now asking for my MAC address, and when I click "Clone MAC address" it rejects it. How do I find out my MAC address?
Go to Start -> Run and type in cmd
That will bring up the DoS prompt. Type in ipconfig /all
Your MAC address is going to look something like this: f08r:0087:.....
What Stargazer said. MAC will be beneath the output heading: Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection and is 48 bits long. ie
00-1c-99-88-77-ef
It's in hexadecimal, and each numeral or letter represents 4 bits. The combined MAC address and 32 bit IP address of a client machine gives a unique 80 bit address with which to use as a filter!
Thanks, I found it.
I will keep working on this and get back to everyone. I really appreciate the help.
I's always good to be a little bit geeky :)
Good luck May!