tips

Becoming Cool with Wireless

With the increasing popularity of the laptop, and how cables connecting your computer to the wall are now "uncool" this tip will help you to setup your wireless internet to be safe...reliable...and prevent you problems with the IS department.

Setting your wireless router is actually really easy, despite the fact there are so many differences. While a lot of options are avaliable, we will just look at the stuff that you need to start out with.

To start out, with this guide you need to have:

  • Wireless Router - We suggest either a netgear or linksys - 802.11b or 802.11g router for most people.
  • Internet Connection
  • 2 Ethernet Cables
  • 1 Computer with Wired Network Card


To do anything, we need to have your computer plugged into the router, in one of the normal ports, and your internet plugged into the Internet port. Most routers have wireless in addition to 4 regular ports and an internet port. Plug the router into power as well.

Before we begin with anything else, I want you to locate a very important button on your router. Should you at any point "screw up" this little button, with the aid of a pen or pencil, will be very helpful to you. If you are using a router with the modem built in, I would highly suggest that you contact your ISP and do not follow this guide. There still may be some applicable portions such as the wireless protection, but we are not experts with modems. So, find the reset button. It should be located on the back of your router. In the case that something goes horribly wrong, press this button, with the power plugged in for about 5 seconds. Actually, to start off, why don't we practice this exercise. Go ahead and push it in. This way we will have the factory defaults, making it easier for us to start out with. (Note: If you are on cable, dsl, idsl, satellite, or other broadbands not provided by a campus lan, make sure you have the passwords and anything else out of your router. We will not cover that setup, but your ISP should be able to help you out with that.)

Now, the stuff we are going to cover is the basics to get you going. With the factory defaults you should be able to get internet. However, that does not mean that it is secured yet, or that all of the options are enabled that we want.

Onto the the router setup

Step 1 Change default router password

Most major brands use a web browser based login to get into the router. So, type into your favorite internet browser the IP address of your router. If you don't know what it is, most routers use the IP 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Now, the next thing is to enter the password. Again, they all are different. If you don't know yours, remember that google is your friend, and type in the words "router default passwords". Now that we are logged in, the first thing we should do is change that password. So, go to the password section, it will be different on every router, but look for the router password option. Go ahead and change that to whatever you want, so long as you remember it, then hit Apply.
  • Step 1: Change default router password ---> Done.


Step 2 Change default SSID of router

At this point you will probably have to login again with your new password. The second thing we will do is to change the name or SSID of your wireless device. This should be found in the basic setup. Change the SSID or Device name to whatever you want...such as the ACORouter. Then press Apply at the bottom of the page.
  • Step 2: Change default SSID of router ---> Done.


Step 3 Wireless Enabled and Security

Then we will go onto the wireless setup. Most wireless devices are turned on by default. If not, change yours so that it is turned on. More than likely it will be either in the basic setup tab, or wireless basic setup.
Depending on how you want to have your wireless device setup, you can either choose to do the next step or choose not to. It is important to note that while the WEP technology has been cracked, it still will keep out the majority of unwanted traffic, as well as keeping your internet data more secure. We are going to use Wireless protection. So, enable that. Then choose WEP. We are just going to use a 64 bit key, but if you really want more, go for the 128 bit key. 64 bit keys are 10 digits long...using numbers 0-9 and letters a-f. So, using the 64 bit key, type in something you create, and remember this, as it will be needed to get onto your wireless device later. So, go ahead and type in any combination of 10 digits. Such as fed5555cba. Press Apply.
  • Step 3: Wireless Enabled and Security ---> Done.


Step 4 Turn off DHCP - for College Campuses

Now at this point, unless you are on a campus, you are probably done. If you are on a campus LAN, then the next step is very important if you don't want your IS department to be shutting off your network connection. At many places DHCP causes a great deal of problems with the network. So, we are going to turn it off. It is important that you do this last, because otherwise you will not be able to get into your router to change anything else. (Unless you do advanced configuration and have a static IP.) Once DHCP is disabled press apply. You still may be able to access your router, but if you close your browser window, you won't be able to get back in unless you hit reset, and start over again.
  • Step 4: Turn off DHCP ---> Done.


Step 5 Switch network Cable

The last step if you completed step 4 is to move your network cables. At the beginning of the tutorial you should have had one cable plugged in from your wall jack to your router (in the special "internet" port), and the other from your router to your computer. At this point we will need to change this so that one cable from the wall is going into the regular ports instead of the "internet" port.
  • Step 5: Switch network Cable ---> Done.


Step 6 Finish Setup

Finally, lets shut down the router. Unplug the router, let it sit a few seconds. On your computer, if you are running windows XP, either press 'start' -> press 'run' -> type 'cmd' -> hit 'ok' -> type 'ipconfig /release' -> press the 'enter' key. Then plug your router back in. Your network should come back up. After the router has been on for 30 seconds, type ipconfig. If you are on the augie network you should get a 10.xx.xx.xx number. Other networks should get a similar number to when you have the computer hooked into the wall. With that done, you now are able to connect to the wireless network when viewing network connections, find your SSID and connect to it. Enter your WEP key (it is a key, not a passphrase). Now you are in-style and not having to use a wired network. It is important to note however, do not have both a wired and wireless connection running at the same time on the same network. This will cause problems. So, unless you know what you are doing, don't have them both enabled.
  • Step 6: Finish Setup. ---> Done.


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