D Link wireless security setup?

I am totally new to Wireless,but have successfully set up the Comcast cable modem, the DLink AirPlus Extreme DWL-650 and the corresponding DLink card DI-624 for the laptop.

All work well but I have as Virus detector NOD32 running on both machines, which use as OS WinXP Pro on desktop and WinXP Home on laptop.

I have not set up any other firewall (tried it but then I cannot use the laptop remotely to access the Internet)

The D-link Technical people said that their router was enough anyhow.

Who has a similar setup and can advise?

Should I have anything turned on or make changes to the default setup?

Reply to
Ritter197
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Read the manual for the card and wireless router. Both supports WEP, WPA and WPA-PSK encryption. If you don't have a radius server to connect to, I recommend that you enable WPA-PSK encryption. Use a long nonsense passphrase like:

7Vs4JO10A7yjHtXESZIbHhTjIwinISG5ERtxqTCtAYdhWY0VECL6RDAFAN2nZUO

Remember, the same passphrase must be used on both the wireless card and the wireless router. Broadcast the SSID. Enabling MAC address filtering is a hurdle with no real benefits. Still, many people feel better by enabling it. As long as you enable strong encryption, you should be fine.

Reply to
Doug Jamal

Thanks for helping.

My tiny manual that came with D-linkDWL-650 and DLink DI624 do not touch these areas at all. So can you please tell me how to proceed in more detail since I am not new to computers at all, but very much so to the Wireless world.

Reply to
Ritter197

Thanks, helps a lot. Now-can I use ANY number for the Encryption key?

Do I need the SAME for both desktop and Laptop?

I do use Windows XP. Anything I need to do there?

Reply to
Ritter197

First, from a computer that is connected to your router, via ethernet cable, type in the IP address of your router (see manual for IP address) in the address section of your web browser and press the enter key. After logging on to the router's menu (see manual for username and password) you will be able to figure out the layout. You will see where to type in encryption keys, etc. As for your wireless card, if you're using the wireless zero configuration provided by Windows XP, assuming you're using XP, then double click on your wireless internet connection and do pretty much the same.

Reply to
Doug Jamal

That is scary to type 63 symbols on both computers and hope and pray that you did not once make a mistake, right? But I do appreciate your response.

At this time I have finally set up the WEP on both computers with 26 numbers.

But I might go your way yet.

Reply to
Ritter197

Yes, with WPA-PSK, you can use any number, any letter as well as special characters like (!@#$%^&*_-+=~`, etc. You can use all letters or all numbers or all special characters or a combination of them up to a total of

  1. You cannot do that with WEP. You don't have to have a 63 character passphrase/encryption key, but it should be at least 7 characters. I use a total of 63. And yes, in order for the wireless card to communicate with the router, they must share the same passphrase/encryption key. That's the security of it. If another wireless pc is within range of your router's wireless signal, that pc must possess your passphrase/encryption key or it cannot communicate with it.
Reply to
Doug Jamal

When you type the passphrase in the router's menu, it'll show up as is. Simply highlight the box where you typed in the passphrase, copy then paste it to the section in your wireless card's setup. You really don't have to remember the passphrase. Whenever you need it, simply access the router's menu from a pc that is connected, via ethernet cable, to the wireless router.

Reply to
Doug Jamal

Oh. now that was and is good news.

Thanks again for all the help.

Reply to
Ritter197

I have written a program that generates random WPA (or WEP) key strings. It automatically copies these to the windows clipboard so they can be pasted into into Notepad (or whatever). If you transfer this notepad file to each computer you can copy and paste from there into the Wireless devices to avoid mistyping. The characters used are all printable. If your WPA device supports Hex then a hexadecimal string can also be generated by the program. I use hex for my WEP only wireless access point.

Here is the link to the program description and download

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The program is free and does not need to be installed but does require the ,net framework version 1.1 to be installed on the computer.

John Steele

Reply to
John Steele

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