Wireless routers....question.

H

hughes_16v

anyone know what a general range is for wireless routers?

Iv at last got my wireless router working and now on the laptop in the garden in the sun.... Im finding my router and two others, one of which i can find inside my house but it has a very poor signal and password protected, password is hollowspell(my street name) tho and the other ive found has a excellent signal and isnt password protected

how can i password protect mine also?
 
You should be able to access your specific router (although it sounds like you might also be able to access someone elses)

On the BT Voyager routers, you type voyager.home into the address bar and you can change the WEP (password) from there
There's usually a default password you have to enter to get into the WEP settings - something like ADMIN

Even if yours isn't a Voyager, try this anyway - the neighbours will be wondering why they can't access their internet anymore :devil:
 
best way is to plug into your router with a cable so you know its yours lol. password is either just blank, 'password', or 'admin' normally. change it to something less obvious. also make sure you enable WEP or WPA(assigned key mode) otherwise everyone in your street will use ur net... done it before when i was waiting to get broadband lol.
 
Mines not a Bt thingo its a linksys one. i can access other peoples internet routers from this laptop, they can probably access mine but oh well
 
you need to open a browser page on your laptop/pc and enter this ip address

http://192.168.1.1

this will get you into the setup page of the router and then you can just click on the security tab and change the details in there

(if i remember rightly, its been a while since i used it lol)
 
philzee said:
you need to open a browser page on your laptop/pc and enter this ip address

http://192.168.1.1

this will get you into the setup page of the router and then you can just click on the security tab and change the details in there

(if i remember rightly, its been a while since i used it lol)
Click to expand...

That ip address wont always work. It depends on the environment the router is being introduced into. If its set to use DHCP, it'l automatically get an IP address from a server or an existing machine, so it could be http://10.0.0.1 or something else. I did one the other day that was 192.168.1.100, and yesterday i've done four which were 192.168.8.2xx - so they really do vary!

Anyway, mac filtering is an option which only accepts data from certain machines if there mac has been entered into the router. to obtain the mac, on the client machine, go into start > run > cmd and type ipconfig /all - Look up the Wireless device in the list and it'l say mac address, followed by i think 12 hexidecimal letters and numbers! Enter these into the router, and all traffic from that device will be permitted. Everything else will be rejected.

Its quite technical, il try getting some screen captures shortly from the routers ive been working on
 
CAT 20T said:
You should be able to access your specific router (although it sounds like you might also be able to access someone elses)

On the BT Voyager routers, you type voyager.home into the address bar and you can change the WEP (password) from there
There's usually a default password you have to enter to get into the WEP settings - something like ADMIN

Even if yours isn't a Voyager, try this anyway - the neighbours will be wondering why they can't access their internet anymore :devil:
Click to expand...

im pretty sure thats illegal :p
 
For your needs Hughes, WEP will be fine :)

You just need to do what you did originally to logon, then you can setup security/wep from here.

As already said, its illegal to use other peoples connections!
 
Im using my own connection no body elses i can just find them on my list...and use them but use my own.

so does anyone know any sort of range they can cover?
 
thats like saying, you shouldn't leave your car unlocked if you dont want posesions stolen. It's still totally illegal.
 
hughes_16v said:
Im using my own connection no body elses i can just find them on my list...and use them but use my own.

so does anyone know any sort of range they can cover?
Click to expand...

Yeah! I've set one up here which works for about 30 meters, before the signal cuts out. That's going through 3 or 4 brick walls too.

Ian said:
thats like saying, you shouldn't leave your car unlocked if you dont want posesions stolen. It's still totally illegal.
Click to expand...

So what about free wireless hotspots? They're not illegal! So how is jumping on a home network & that any different!?
 
Arnold said:
Dont bother with Wep keys etc, just use mac filtering!
Click to expand...

mac addesses are extremely easy to change on a network card. so i wouldnt recommend that. i dont know how easy WEP/WPA are to crack tho.

normally i just click WPA shared key on
 
they can be changed? I thought the only way to change them is to change cards, because its in the firmware of the card? Im sure most people dont have the know how to change a mac address. I dont and im PC technical.

OK i just researched it, apperently you can't change it, which i didnt think was possible as its burned into the card. But you can spoof an address, the method used will be above most people as they wouldnt want to mess on with the machine.
 
rlees85 said:
mac addesses are extremely easy to change on a network card.
Click to expand...

It can be changed with various utilities and hacks, but unless you can guess the exact 12 or 14 digit hex combination pre programmed into the router, you'l never be able to connect to it successfully!

I did a rom hack on 4 US robotics routers yesterday changing the mac address - its very poor design by US robotics and it shouldnt be changable!
 
true about being hard to guess.

my router has a little box saying "Mac Address:" which i can write a mac address for it in... lol!
 
rlees85 said:
true about being hard to guess.

my router has a little box saying "Mac Address:" which i can write a mac address for it in... lol!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that'l be mac filtering.
 
lol yeah its a cable router, and NTL sometimes needs you to clone the MAC address of your network card - thats why. so its normal.

u were rite bout wireless tho guessing a 14-digit hex wudnt b the best way to spend a year would it...
 
yeah its normal to be able to set the "viewable" mac of the router. How many combinations would there be ? 14 to the power 15? Rahter large number :)
 
rlees85 said:
mac addesses are extremely easy to change on a network card. so i wouldnt recommend that. i dont know how easy WEP/WPA are to crack tho.

normally i just click WPA shared key on
Click to expand...

I thaught MAC addresses are not changable. they are embeded in the Network device. and can't be changed like an IP address.
 
the MAC address is printed/programed on the device much like a serial number and is given to the product when being built.

I've never needed to change one. How can it be changed?
 
It depends on the device. Most decent cards cannot be changed, however as above, you can see the NTL thing can be easily amended. On the US Robotics devices i used, it was just a simple case of amending the Rom file and uploading it to the device!
 
yep and changing the outside viewable MAC address on a card (which is what i was talking bout) can be done with a spoofing program very easily...
 
Arnold said:
It depends on the device. Most decent cards cannot be changed, however as above, you can see the NTL thing can be easily amended. On the US Robotics devices i used, it was just a simple case of amending the Rom file and uploading it to the device!
Click to expand...

so can u change the whole mac address? or just the last 6?
 
I dont know actually, but just to prove its changable, i've captured this image of one of our ones here

15.mackahack.JPG
 
Mac address filtering is worth enabling but offers next to no protection or data encryption.

If WEP is the only encryption available then use it as its better than noting and stops casual attacks (eg. accidental logons). By someone ‘in the Know’ it can be cracked in like less than 10 mins, using an ARP relay attack to generate weak IVs at a vastly increased rate.

WPA-PSK is yet to be broken by the public domain, apart from a dictionary based attack. The solution, make sure your Pre Shared Key is a random string not a dictionary work. Either AES or TKIP encryption is fine, TKIP has lower overheads but AES offers stronger encryption. Both are strong enough though.

Make sure you change the default password and turn off remote access. Reflectors can also be used to increase/influence signal dispersion.
 
its not actualyl changing, if you pulled the card out and put it into a different machine, then it would return to its original. I believe your spoofing the new MAC with software and over-riding the broadcast address.
 
andrewb150 said:
Mac address filtering is worth enabling but offers next to no protection or data encryption.
Click to expand...

How can it offer no protection? You cant successfully transmit data through unless the client machines MAC is entered into the router!
 
Arnold said:
unless you can guess the exact 12 or 14 digit hex combination pre programmed into the router, you'l never be able to connect to it successfully!
Click to expand...

You could sniff the air for a while and monitor the traffic to find out the MAC addresses of recognized clients. Kick them off the network and connect yourself/ wait until they turn off their computer.

Google Air Snort there are many tools that can passively monitor the airwaves

Mac address filtering offers no encryption so unless VPN tunneling was used all unencrypted data would be transmitted in the clear, ie emails, web pages, etc.
 
andrewb150 said:
You could sniff the air for a while and monitor the traffic to find out the MAC addresses of recognized clients. Kick them off the network and connect yourself/ wait until they turn off there computer.

Google Air Snort there are many tools that can passively monitor the airwaves

Mac address filtering offers no encryption so unless VPN tunneling was used all unencrypted data would be transmitted in the clear, ie emails.
Click to expand...

But, we've already established you cant really change Mac addresses for client machines, so its not as easy as 'scanning the air' and then joining when a client has left! Also, MAC filtering can be used alongside normal encryption
 
Arnold said:
so its not as easy as 'scanning the air' and then joining when a client has left!
Click to expand...
Sadley it is!

Someone said that we could not change a Mac address forever but MAC address Spoofing until restart can be done.

google mac address spoofing

There are even freeware windows tools to do it. eg. "Mac Makeup"

Arnold said:
Also, MAC filtering can be used alongside normal encryption
Click to expand...
I agree:
andrewb150 said:
Mac address filtering is worth enabling
Click to expand...
 
andrewb150 said:
Sadley it is!

Someone said that we could not change a Mac address forever but MAC address Spoofing until restart can be done.

google mac address spoofing

There are even freeware windows tools to do it. eg. "Mac Makeup"
Click to expand...

Well i'l have to check some of these tools out, but so far im not convinced! Even if it can be changed, you'd still have to guess the correct 14 digit hex combination to gain successful access.
 
Arnold he is right. Andrew (not this Andrew) who sometimes comes on here is also very network knowledable, and can crack any WEP in as has been said under 10 mins. MAC address filtering is not strong, as the Andrew above said, its a simple case of sniffing packets of data (which with just MAC filtering are unencripted) and give it a few mins and away you go.

WPA-PSK is a much more secure enviroment, (and happens to be what my router uses) but as has been said dictionary attackes are surprisingly effective.
 

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