Well, finally my $18.88 special arrived today, a Linksys Wireless B router, specifically model number BEFW11S4, its an 802.11 B, 2.4 ghz...blah blah blah Since i'm presuming it was refrbished (plain white box, no instructions) im wondering on how to set this beast up Do I need Any Software? Where Can I Find Some Links On Installing This Puppy? Will It Work With A PSP/DS? How to Configure The Monster? Will I get Angry At The Installation? Where Did I Put My Shorts? I've never done something like this, and to be frank, im lost....utterly lost....hopelessly lost Anyone with any kind of suggestion/help? Ryan
Here is the official tech site for that model router. http://tinyurl.com/blnxj It shouldn't require any additional software, but just to be safe.. What OS are you running? -ServiceGames-
XP should have all the neccesary software built in. Actually, since it is a linksys. Connect to the router via Ethernet port (that is if it has both wireless and ethernet ports) plug it in and go to your browser. Type in: http://192.168.1.1 That will take you directly to your router, you're not on the Internet. You can set it up from there.
well i just hooked 'er up, and it worked, i rmemeber seeing a site that informed users on options to set and protect your router, any ideas? the linksys site included just the basics cheers Ryan
I have the exact same model and I can say its a piece of crap. I will never again buy anything linksys. Just about once a day i have to unplug and replug it; or reset it to get it to work; mind you, this is for wired connections as well. I've gotten so pissed off of it that i don't even really full around with setting it up anymore, my roommate takes care of that. lol, not that this post helped ya but you get what you pay for.
Its not bad for me, kinda gets weird with my internet connection, then again i always had a half-assed and barely feasible connection to begin with, my biggest problem with the unit is, there's no off switch on the thing, personally, when im not on the computer, i like everything to be off.....and climbing under the desk to unplug the unit is a hassle... Ryan
Really? I had (until I upgraded to G) that exact same router and had absolutely no problems whatsoever. For RGGG: I would recommend getting the latest firmware installed if you haven't done so already. That minimizes the number of problems that you should have. Unless you have the router physically under your desk, you shouldn't have to climb under there to unplug it, you can just unplug the cord from the router itself with no damage. I would recommend that you just leave it plugged in, but turn on MAC address filtering for only those computers that you want to connect to it. No other computer will be able to connect to the router unless they know the MAC address of one of the computers which can connect to it. Of course, also turn on encryption, and turn off the SSID broadcasting. Good luck getting any router to work with a PSP. I had to disable all encryption and enable the SSID broadcasting (hello open box...) just to get the damn PSP to even see the network. Connecting took even more than that.
Thanks Mairsil, that was the info i was looking for, i might just unplug the unit from its apadater and leave the adapter in,...which i guess wouldnt hurt anything....It connected to the psp with no problems, and the DS found it also, although right now, speeds are slow, worse than dial-up slow....then again, the antennas are almost hidden, and signal strength is only about 60%......oh well,..maybe ill mess with it more tonight Ryan
I wouldn't bother turrning off ssid broadcasting. It doesn't really stop anyone from seeing the network and it just makes it more dificult for you to connect to your own access point. In areas that have multiple wireless networks, i highly recomend turning on ssid broadcasting. It makes it easier for your equipment to tell which network to connect to.
What PA said. Disabling the SSID does *NOTHING* to improve security. All it does is advertise the fact that you're not familiar with the hardware. If someone is looking for a mark and they see a disabled SSID it's like a big sign that says "HACK ME! I'M A NOOB!" Also, you want WPA encryption enabled. WEP is worthless. -hl718
I partially disagree. Yes, disabling SSID does nothing for security, as it is very easy to just sniff out a wireless router. However, it does remove the temptation of hacking from novices that may not know the router is there and eliminates most clients from trying to automatically connect to it. Not much, but every little bit helps. Definitely use WPA if you can, but unfortunately, not all hardware supports this. If you can, play around with the power output level so that the wireless broadcast can only reach the confines of your room/apartment/house. That will go a long way to keep those wardrivers away. :lol:
You don't want to worry about a novice, you want to worry about the one that knows what they are doing. Besides, even a novice with NetStumbler will see a network with no SSID broadcast, the MAC is always visible. A few scripts and the SSID is obtained. Another script and a MAC is cloned allowing the wardriver to connect. If your hardware does not support WPA it is IN NO WAY secure. WEP can be broken with no effort and in a trivial amount of time. If you are using hardware that only supports WEP you might as well have an open network. A script kiddie with a few minutes can connect to a network with no SSID broadcast, MAC filtering and WEP without doing any real hacking. Yes, it is that simple. If you think these three things offer you any level of security you are simply deluding yourself. -hl718
I went to visit my parents over thanksgiving. They have a wireless network setup. Turns out, my father lost the wep key and i couldn't connect. I would have just reset the router, but it was a pain in the ass to get setup to begin with. My laptop duel boots linux specificly so i can crack wireless networks, so i left the laptop run overnight after i went to sleep. When i woke up the next morning, i had the wep key. Mind you, my degree is in digital security... so i've done this once or twice. = P WPA isn't much more secure than wep these days. They found out how to create data collisions about a year and a half ago. It takes roughly 2 million packets, but you can crack WPA 1.0. As far as i'm aware, no one has cracked WPA 2.0 without brute forcing the key. Unfortunately very few devices support WPA 2.0. In a home environment i don't really worry about SSID broadcasting either way. The average suburban neighborhood doesn't really have to worry about war driving.
wowzers, i didnt know that there was faults like that in a wep, i guess any network can be hacked, just depends on how determined you are on a side note, this is weird, when i use my router, and the computer is off, im okay, but as soon, as i unplug my router from the power bar(which the computer is plugged into) my optical mouse lights up, plug it back in, and the mouse shuts off.....that is just plain weird.. Ryan
