so i have wifi , now what ? wep,mac ?

Placebo

hey just got a netgear DG834G ROUTER and a WG511T wireless card, both G standard, both working, i am new to this, anywhere i can read up on security, what is wep? what is mac ? do you guys use any of these ?

my outer has firewall built in, i think !? do i need to get zone alarm or anyother firewall software ?

thank you
n00b

Champ

Security wise you might find this of help:
http://www.maximumpc.com/how_to/reprint_2004-01-05.html

Placebo

thanks for that but i ran inot a bit of problem , last night i just connected to 192.168.0.1 or something that was given and i restarded pc and it worked grand But now his morning net woldnt work and i had to enter that again >
ne ideas ?

Champ

I don't have experience with the particular gear your using; though i would investigate if there might be some sort of IP conflict occuring somewhere; but then again it could easily be the hardware your using. Be sure to check out the manufacturers' websites.

hostyle

I have a DG834G . Do you have any particular questions? (I'm not on boards that often these days, so please excuse delays)

liamo

WEP = Wired Equivalent Privacy. Essentially it encrypts your wireless communications.
MAC = Media Access Control. I assume you're asking about MAC Filtering? This is a way of including/excluding clients based on the (not quite) unique hardware address of the network device.

You should Google for information on MAC Filtering and WEP. There's a wealth of information available.

last night i just connected to 192.168.0.1 or something that was given and i restarded pc and it worked grand

192.168.0.1 is the factory IP Address of the router. What did you do when you connected to it? Did you change some of the default settings? (which BTW is a good idea) Why did you need to restart your PC? Did you also change some network settings on the PC?

But now his morning net woldnt work and i had to enter that again >

Need a little bit more information.
Wouldn't work
What wouldn't work? Your entire network? The wireless part of it? In what way wouldn't it work? Do you mean you can't connect to the router? To the Internet? To other PC's wirelessly?

i had to enter that again
What did you enter it into? Did it fix it?

ne ideas ?

Yes. May I respectfully direct you to this excellent essay by Eric S. Raymond on "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way".

Placebo

LMAO. okay thanks for information.
But basically the Internet was not working downstairs (pc - router via ethernet) Usuaully it works when you just start the pc, i dont know the fault but it seems to be working now(i pluged out the router and plugged it back in [power]). So all i need to do is setup the WEP i guess. Athough i am getting a "VeryGood" signal up here , so i doubt anyone outside my house will be getting anything.

192.168.0.1 is the factory IP Address of the router. What did you do when you connected to it? Did you change some of the default settings? (which BTW is a good idea) Why did you need to restart your PC? Did you also change some network settings on the PC?

Well when i entered that, i had to enter all my isp details. And i think it started working, i restarded pc to check if it worked and it was working.

I have a DG834G . Do you have any particular questions? (I'm not on boards that often these days, so please excuse delays)

Do you leave it plugged in all night ? the router ? 24/7 ?


P.s : should i just wait for windows SP2 or get a firewall (apprently my router has an inbuilt firewall but i do not know what that does or how it works)


thankyou

liamo

Hi Placebo,

OK. Glad to hear that all is working now.

There are a few things you can do in the future to narrow down the possibilities, if you experience this again.

You need to find out WHERE the problem is occurring.
1) Is your wireless connection ok?
2) Can you ping the Router?
3) Can you ping an IP Address (eg 194.125.133.10)
4) Can you ping a URL (eg Google.ie)

The above steps test your connectivity progressively further out onto the Internet. When a test fails, you need to go into further, more detailed, tests. If you ask a question at that point, supplying additional information such as the IP Addresses of your PC and Router, etc will help others to help you.

i doubt anyone outside my house will be getting anything

I wouldn't bet that people outside your house can't pick up anything but MAC Filtering and/or WEP should be enough to keep out the casual sniffer.

Do you leave it plugged in all night ? the router ? 24/7 ?

There's no reason to keep bringing the connection up and down unless you're trying to save pennies on electricity. I use a Linksys WRT54G as an access point for internal wireless connectivity and leave it on 24/7. My Router (IP Cop) is also on 24/7.

should i just wait for windows SP2 or get a firewall

You don't need to wait, you can download it now. It's not available yet thru Automatic Update but is available as an exe for downloading.

I've just downloaded it and am about to install it.The concensus seems to be that they've done a good job of it. It consists of more than just a firewall (which exists already but is turned off by default). Any of the stand-alone firewalls will have more functionality than the Windows one but the Windows firewall will suffice.

You're already behind a firewall that's present on the Router. That will generally be good enough. You may also wish to enable the Windows firewall. Others may disagree, perhaps because outbound connections are not handled, but I don't see the point in installing yet another firewall. But it's a personal thing, some people prefer to use a firewall other than the MS product.

Regards,

Liam

Placebo

Liam you have been more than helpful, thank you very much for the information, very much appreciated, i will setup WEP soon enough and will get sp2.

Peace