Wireless router

PACH

I have just bought a Linksys Wireless Broadband Router that I am going to install soon. As I only want two laptops to have access to the system, how do I stop other computers in the vicinity to piggy back on this? Does anybody know if this router ( WirelessG 802.11g) has a build in firewall?

blinky

T

Setup a WPA encyption key or if it or your wireless network card doesn't support it setup a WEP encryption key.

Other steps recommended

Disable SSID broadcast (so only people who know the name of the wireless network can connect).
Enable MAC Address Filtering to only allow certain wireless devices to connect (each network device has a unique 48bit MAC address usually written in hexidecimal (numbers 0-9 and letters A-F for 11 to 15. However, MAC addresses can be spoofed).

scheming_gypsy

you could also disable the DHCP client on it and issue both the computers a static IP address.

PACH

Please help,
Tried to install the router. Unfortunately I found the different type of installation very confusing. At the end I thought that I finished with the installation as the system recognised the given SSID name by myself. But when I tried to connect, the system was asking me for NETWORK KEY ( it looks like a password as it has to entered twice). What is this network key and how do I proceed. Does anybody know?

blinky

If you've setup a WEP or WPA key it will be that.

PACH

I did not set up WEP or WPA as I was not asked during the configuration so I have no idea where to do this. Does this Key act as a security from other users?