Setting up wireles network at home

Bulmers

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help, i have a corporate bb connection at home, i.e. the company pays and they have supplied a router too, i have a cisco 800series. I wanted to set up wirless at home but they told me i couldn't do it as they dont support wireless at home, company security policy...

Is there anyway i can set this up, i am unable to log into the router either as they wont give me the pw, since i cant log in, will i not be able to set this up as i've read b4 that the adsl router needs to be set up as a bridge?

any help appreciated.

Idleater

I presume you currently have the following setup:
adsl

---

> router

---

> ethernetcable

---

> computer

You could put a wireless router/access point on the wire that comes out of the company router into your computer:

adsl

---

> router

---

> ethernetcable

---

> wireless router/AP ~~~~~> wireless 802.11 ~~~~~> computer(s).

You would have to disable the "router" and DHCP functionality from any wireless device that you put in there. This is different to the "bridge" functionality that you mentioned as this is probably already being done by the company router.

Or you could set up a peer to peer / adHoc wireless connection between computers by just installing wireless cards in them all.

L.

Bulmers

thanks for that,

Just for clarity, basically i dont need to access the company router to change settings on it, i just need to change the settings on the wireless AP i get?

cheers

jor el

As nereid says, just get a wireless router and disable it's DHCP function. Plug the ethernet connection from the modem/router into the wireless router and then have wireless cards in your PCs. Do enable encryption on the wireless router as without it you'd have an open connection and if your company finds out you could loose your job, depending on how serious they treat it.

Don't use an ad-hoc peer to peer connection for the home PCs as again you'd have no security here either.

You should be very careful doing this anyway. You've been explicitly told not to set up a wireless connection, and if the company find out that you did then you could be in a lot of trouble. Wireless encryption can be cracked and would leave your company's internal network exposed.

Bulmers

is it still unsecured even though i connect thru a VPN? Are VPN connections not secure over wireless?

Forgive the ignorance here, only started looking into this so not so up to date yet on wireless APs at home.

cormac_byrne

Bulmers wrote:

I wanted to set up wirless at home but they told me i couldn't do it as they dont support wireless at home, company security policy...

Check your comanies security policy very carefully. If they prohibit wireless connections then you risk your job if you set on up. Yes even if you secure it and are also using VPN.

If they merely don't support wireless connections, then go ahead and do it (just don't expect any support from the Companies IT helpdesk)

The VPN should provide secure access to your company even over a wireless connection. But that doesn't mean that you don't have to secure your wireless lan as well. Leaving it open could give a hacker a chance to attack your home lan (if not the company). Just think about it if your PC that runs the VPN connection is on an unsecure wireless network. A hacker getting onto your PC might use a keylogger to steal your VPN username/password details. Alternatively they might be able to bridge your wifi lan connection to your VPN virtual lan connection.

These might be remote possibilities, but you still need to be careful

Bulmers

cheers, thanks for that...i'll find out why they dont support wireless 1st and will see what i'll do then.

thanks for the help