Linksys NWR04B Appendix C: Configuring Wireless Security

Wireless Cable/DSLRouter

Network Everywhere®Series

Appendix C: ConfiguringWireless Security

An acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy, WEPis an encryption method used

to protect your wireless data communications. WEPuses a combination of 64-

bit or 128-bit keys to provide access control to your network and encryption

security for every data transmission. To decode a data transmission, each point

in a network must use an identical 64-bit or 128-bit key. Higher encryption lev-

els mean higher levels of security, but due to the complexity of the encryption,

they may mean decreased network performance.

You may also have heard the term “40-bit”used in conjunction with WEP

encryption. This is simply another term for 64-bit WEPencryption. This level

of WEPencryption has been called 40-bit because it uses a 40-bit secret key

along with a 24-bit Initialization Vector (40 +24 = 64). Wireless vendors may

use either name. Network Everywhere uses the term “64-bit”when referring

to this level of encryption.

Make sure your wireless network is functioning before attempting to configure

WEP encryption.

A 128-bit WEPencrypted wireless network will NOT communicate with a 64-

bit WEPencrypted wireless network. Therefore, make sure that all of your

wireless devices are using the same encryption level. All wireless devices com-

plying with the 802.11b standard will support 64-bit WEP.

In addition to enabling WEP, Network Everywhere also recommends the fol-

lowing security implementations:

•Changing the SSID from the default “wireless”

•Changing the WEPkey regularly

Note: WEPencr yption is an additional data securi-

ty measure and not essential for router operation.

Note: In order for WEP Encryption to be enabled, wireless functions must

first be enabled. Select Enableunder the Wireless section before proceeding.

2. Write down the web address returned by the ping command (in the

example above:mail.msnv3.occa.home.com.). This web address is the web

address assigned to the IPaddress you just pinged. While the IP address of

“mail”could conceivably change, it is likely that this web address will not.

3. Replace your ISP’s abbreviated server address with this extended web

address in the corresponding Internet application (web browser, e-mail

application, etc.).

Once you have replaced the brief server address with the true server address,

the Router should have no problem accessing the Internet through that Internet

application.

C:\>ping -a 24.53.32.4

Pinging mail.msnv3.occa.home.com [24.53.32.4] with

32 bytes of data:

Reply from 24.53.32.4: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=127

Ping statistics for 24.53.32.4:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%

loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms