wireless security

[preet]

Just bought a dlink wireless adsl router DSL-2640U. Did the setup and everything is working fine both via WIFI and cable. Wanted to know how to prevent outsiders from accessing my network? In other words defining a secure zone where only PCs in my home can only get access to the router.

thanks.

[PrntRhd]

Go back into the router configuration admin webpage, change the wireless SSID to something unique, change the admin password to a long random one, and write it down for future use, and save settings. This is to assure you are connecting to your network.
Get back into the utility, then turn on security and choose WPA encryption, then make a reasonably long random 26-40 character passphrase for the encryption key, and save the settings. The encryption keeps outsiders from accessing your network.
Open the client utility on a laptop, have it find the network you named with the SSID, then open the settings there and enter the settings for WPA and enter the passphrase key.
Check that it works, and repeat the procedure on the additional client PCs.

[John0904]

The SSID, MAC Filter, and even the Admin password is not important.

The #1 concern is the encryption type, method and passphase are the utmost importance.

WPA/WEP + AES/TKIP + "strong passphase"

WPA is better than WEP.
AES is better than TKIP.

Strong passphase is not a dictionary word. Length is equally imporant. The longer, the better.

http://geodsoft.com/howto/password/cracking_passwords.htm#comp
GeodSoft How-To: Cracking Passwords Techniques

The reason why the SSID, MAC Filter, and the Admin password are not important is simple because if your wireless encryption methods are strong, it doesn't matter if your SSID is visible.
It doesn't matter if your MAC Filter is disabled. They will never know your MAC ID without access to your network.
It doesn't matter about the Admin password because for the same reasons.
Though I would change the Admin password to an easy password and not the default.

The SSID and MAC Filter are simply deterrents. They can be bypassed by hackers.

You can change the SSID to something silly though. Let the world know your humor. =)

[preet]

Thanks guy. I'll try to put your advice in practice.