Set-up Wireless Security

 

Without setting-up security on your wireless network any computer with a wireless network adapter in range of your wireless transmission could access your network.  At best this may mean someone using your broadband internet connection for themselves, perhaps even by accident, at worst they may gain access to your computer.  In Windows XP Service Pack 2 Microsoft added a Wireless Network Setup Wizard that simplifies the secure set-up of your wireless network.  That's what we're going to use here to set-up your wireless network.  First we will run this wizard on the client machine with the wireless network adapter, then use the automatically generated information to set-up your Wireless Access Point.  If you don't have Windows XP SP2 and want to follow manual steps, then click here.

Note, I'm going to recommend the use of a security mechanism called WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access).  It's possible that your wireless access point or network adaptor(s) don't support this security mechanism, particularly if they aren't new.  In this case you will have to get a firmware upgrade for your network adaptors and WAP or use a security mechanism called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) - to go through setting up for WEP rather than WPA go to this page.  If you don't know, then follow the steps below, if the WAP don't exist, try the WEP page.

Wireless Network Setup Wizard

As with all of these descriptions, if you wireless adapter has clear instructions on how to get connected, follow those rather than my instructions here as they will be specific to your particular adapter, whereas mine are necessarily less specific.

You should be starting after you've installed the software for your network adapter in the previous section.

To use the simplest options available in the wizard you need a USB drive that you can plug-in to record the network information for setting-up the other computers.  It's still possible to use the wizard without this, but it will take a little longer following manual steps (that the wizard does describe).

1. In your Windows XP system tray you should have a network icon that appeared after installing the software for you network adapter.  It should look something like one of these:

   	Your wireless network is connected.  Perhaps you set-up the security during set-up or haven't set-up security at all.  In this case, go back to setting-up the security on your WAP.
   	Windows has found a WAP and is trying to connect.
   	Your wireless network is disconnected.
   	Your wireless network has a problem, like the signal isn't strong enough to connect.

   Move you mouse over the wireless network icon and click your right-mouse button.  Doing this you should see a short menu including the option to View Available Wireless Networks; choose this option.

   
    

The window that appears will look something like this:   In the top left of the window you should see two tasks listed in the 'Network Tasks' section, choose 'Set up a wireless network for a home or small office.'  This will start the Wireless Network Setup Wizard.

Follow the steps in the wireless network wizard choosing the recommended options, as shown below.   Step 1: Welcome - choose 'Next >'
Step 2: Create a name for your network.  SSID stands for Service Set IDentifier and in English is simply the name of your wireless network.  It can be up-to 32 characters long and every computer must use exactly the same characters.  The name is case sensitive so "My Home W-LAN" is different to "my home W-LAN".  Change this name to something you choose, preferably something not easy to guess. Leave the 'Automatically assign a network key' option selected. Click the check-box at the bottom of the window to 'Use WPA encryption instead of WEP'
Step 3: Plug your USB drive in to the computer and choose 'Next >'. If you don't have a USB drive then choose the 'Set up a network manually' option.  When you click 'Next >' after choosing this you will have the ability to print the network information you need to set-up the clients.
Step 4:  If your wireless access point is plugged in to a different computer remove you USB drive from the client computer and plug it in to the computer connected to the WAP.  If the WAP is connected to same computer you just used to set-up the client then go straight to the Security for your Wireless Access Point section.
Step 5: If you have a wireless access point that will take a USB drive for this kind of automatic set-up, then plug it and it should automatically configure the device.  I don't have one of these so followed a semi-manual process to set-up my WAP which I describe next in the Security for you Wireless Access Point section; go there now.

4. Once you've set-up you WAP, if you wait a few moments your clients should be able to connect to the wireless network and you'll see an icon something like:   If you don't see this, try restarting your computer (I had to do this with my laptop installation).  The network will often take a few moments, say 5-10 seconds to connect.

   Once connected, open your web browser and type in a web address like http://www.CareOfWindowsXP.com and you should be on the internet!

 

Security for your Wireless Access Point (WAP)

If you have a new Wireless Access Point that can be automatically configured using a USB device, then you should have already done this by following the steps above.  If not, then here's how to initialise your WAP manually to work with keys automatically generated by the Windows Wireless Setup Wizard.

1. The first thing you need to do is open the administration interface to your WAP.  For my own Linksys device this is done by opening the browser and typing the web address http://192.168.1.1 - I know this doesn't look like a normal web address, but it is.  This doesn't actually go out over the internet, addresses that start 192.168.1 are normally local to your own computer network.  You will usually need a password to enter the administration interface which will be included in your documentation.
    
2. We are going to set or change four things:
   • SSID - the name of your wireless network
   • Channel - which channel your network will broadcast on
   • Security Mode - how you will stop spying or connecting to your wireless network.
   • Administrator password for the Wireless Access Point.

   The SSID and security mode details will come from the files the Wireless Network Setup Wizard created, either on the USB drive or that you printed.  If you used a USB drive then you'll need to find the right file on the disk, you are looking for a file called WSETTING.txt (if you can't see it, use Windows XP search on the Start menu; choose to search for 'All Files and Folders' and set the 'Look In' drop-down list to the USB drive).  Once you open the WSETTING.txt file, you'll see the values you need.
    

3. SSID: SSID stands for Service Set IDentifier and in English is simply the name of your wireless network.
   
   
   
   The SSID can be up-to 32 characters long with every computer using exactly the same characters.  The name is case sensitive so "My Home W-LAN" is different to "my home W-LAN".  Change this name to the name found in the WSETTING.txt file - open the file by double-clicking it, select the name with the mouse, choose 'Copy' from the edit menu, then select the text box in the WAP administration interface for the SSID and paste the name by pressing the keys Ctrl and 'v' at the same time (Ctrl+V).

   SSID Broadcast: there should be a setting that allows you to turn on/off SSID Broadcast.  Turn it off or disable broadcast.  If you broadcast the name, it stops someone having to guess it - and there's no point changing it if you broadcast what it is.  You can see this in the Linksys example above.
    

4. Channel: In Europe there are 13 wireless channels and in the USA there are 11.  Each channel broadcasts on a specific frequency.  Just randomly choose one that isn't the default setting for you WAP.
    
5. Security Mode: There are a number of choices for security.  I'm going to suggest you use WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) because its the most secure, even if its not the one most commonly available.  The most common mechanism is called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) Security and if your wireless equipment doesn't support WPA then you should configure it using WEP instead.
   
    

   So, in the security settings choose the WPA Pre-Shared Key (or WPA-PSK) security mode.

   You then need to supply a key code made up from the numbers 0-9 and the letters A-F (its actually a base 16 number also known as hex).  The shared key should be at least 20 characters (something like 'F64E6C36901E0B26C33C87C451').  Using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard and having it create the key for you means that you will have a 64 character long key!  Again copy this from the WSETTING.txt file and paste it into the key field on your WAP administration interface, as shown in the Linksys interface above.
    

6. Administrator password: set a strong but rememberable administrator password for your WAP box.  On my WAP this is done in a section called 'administration' and the password is described as the 'router password.'  For advice on passwords visit the user accounts passwords section.
    
7. Now go back to step 4 in the client section to complete your set-up.

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