Securing my wireless connection

[Baron Greenback]

I have an SMC router (SMC7804WBRA) which works fine, however I can pick up a couple of other signals from my neighbours so I assume that they can pick up my signal. So now I want to encrypt or secure my router.

Easy, I thought, I will go to the advanced set up page for the router & enable the encryption. But I managed to secure myself out of my own network

I thought maybe the first time it asked me for a password it would use that, no. I thought on enabling the security feature it would ask me to create a password, no. It would appear to not be as idiot proof as I hoped. I tried all kind of "usual" initial passwords to no avail & really didn't know what to do, luckily the router had a reset hole.

Anyone know of a good step by step guide? I have tried google but I just keep getting shops selling my type of router. (Also I was a bit confused by the initial choice of WEP/WAP security feature).

any advice from you clever guys?

[Carpe Diem]

I know someone who can handle very well such issues, he works for one of the companies offering internet connection. Last time he came to my place he told me he charges a flat rate of $50 per visit.

So if you have other issues you want to solve you might want to ask him as well.

If you want just PM me and I will send you his number.

[Baron Greenback]

Thanks for the tip CD. I am going to have another go tonight, I am not totally inept so I like to have a good go before I fork out $

But I will bear it in mind if I end up pulling my hair out

[banana]

Try googling the model number (THIS -> SMC7804WBRA) instead.

The properties page of your wireless connection should have an allowance for network key input.

[Baron Greenback]

Thanks nana man, tried googling that with "guide" troubleshooting" "tips" all of the afore mentioned just drawing a blank. I'm going to have another go, now I have found the master reset button, I can't really do that much damage....can I?

[Strong Eagle]

Are you sure it's a SMC7804WBRA? There are 7904xxx on the SMC website but no 7804.

In any event, a couple of things:

a) you will always be able to "see" other routers in the neighborhood if they have been set to transmit their name (and that is the default in almost all cases).

b) this means that yours can probably be seen as well.

c) if the other routers are not running in encrypted mode, you can simply connect to them.

d) this is why it is very important to run some sort of encryption... which is not the same as a password.

I'm guessing you have a wired/wireless router.. You have already figured out how to reset it to default, yes?

So, you can change the password from default if you want but it really doesn't matter because the router settings can only be changed from a hardwire connection, not from a wireless device.

You need to find the wireless setup section. You want to specify a channel (default is usually 6 or 11), set it to something else because nobody else will change theirs and you can get channel interference.

Find the encryption settings. Choose WEP with the long key. Enter the key... your router will either aske for a phrase or enter 26 hex values. Write these down since your wireless card in your pc needs to match. I prefer entering key values but that is me.

[Strong Eagle]

You can get your guide here:

http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=down ... ode=EN_USA

[Baron Greenback]

Thansk SE, I must have a slightly outdated model as I have had a hard time trying to find info about it on the SMC website.