NetGear has been installed on my computer for quite a while....and I use it for Wireless Internet. Recently I tried reading some articles about how to secure my wireless Internet through WEP/WPA encryption or blocking of Mac addresses. The encryption methods are messed and I don't know which Mac addresses to block. I was wondering if there was a way to see who is using my wireless connection to get on the Internet. I have no idea which tab in the NetGear information pop-up tells this, but I was guessing that the 'site survey' tab did the job.

Except then if these people were all using my connection, shouldn't they all possess the same type of encryption that I have? Yet some of them have no encryption while others have WEP. Another question: Why doesn't encryption work? I click on the 'Enable Encryption' checkbox and type in a Passphrase, but once I click 'Apply', the connection dies. At the bottom of the encryption enabling tab there's a note saying, "Please assure that the settings on this page match those in the Access Point or other stations, otherwise you will not be able to establish a wireless connection." I have no idea what its talking about.

If anyone could explain, I'd be really grateful!

EDIT: Oops. I'm not sure if this topic should go in the Networking section or in the Security one...If it's in the wrong section, sorry!

This post has been edited by Arbitrary: Jul 5 2006, 05:56 AM

So you probably have a Wi-Fi router, which is connected to Internet and you use the Internet connection through it with your PC with a Wi-Fi card. And you are wondering if someone else (a neighbour) can access your network and use your Internet connection.

First of all, you need to have the encryption enabled on both, your PC and the router. If it doesn't work you need to upgrade drivers and/or firmware. And you really should be able to allow only certain MAC addresses to access your router. If you are wondering what's your Wi-Fi card's MAC address, typically it can be seen from the card's software.

Unfortunately I can't give you accurate pointers as I don't possess the software you are using.

Yeah, I've tried to block several MAC addresses, but then it blocks even the people that I want to allow. I've also attempted to enable encryption, but once I do it, the connection just goes off and will only go back on if I unplug and replug the wireless router. Worse, every time I do this, the encryption just mysteriously disappears. I don't get that at all.

I have the feeling that I'm only enabling encryption on either the PC or the router and not both, so it's causing me problems. I've checked the card's MAC address through command prompt though, so that's not a problem.

Anyways, thanks for the response. The NetGear forums recently closed down...

This post has been edited by Arbitrary: Jul 6 2006, 10:12 PM

In this case you might want to have a read through the manual because there might be something you're doing wrong here, maybe you're doing everything right and it's just the hardwares fault. Maybe try and upgrade the firmware? When i have problems like this with other routers i just upgrade the firmware and it usually fixes the problem and gives you some more functionality too.

-HellFire

Ok here is what seems to be going wrong. You not only have to enable the encryption on your Router but you have to have your computer use that Passkey to access the Router and the net beyond. To do this, first your router should have come with a disc, put it in your comp and run through the setup wizard. If you can't figure that out, then post the router model info and I can research the problem your having and hopefully come up with a easy guide to get you working the way you want.

Though I must say that you have to enable the encryption on both the computer(s) you want to access the router and the router itself. Whats happening is that you enter the passkey into the router, thus encrypting the WiFi and then since you haven't told the computer(s) you want to be able to use the WiFi the key, they can't access. When you remove the Power cable from the router your basicly removing that Encryption from the WiFi and allowing computers to access it without security.

Thanks everyone. I ran the setup wizard for the router and I enabled encryption on the computer and the router.

Hello Arbitrary,

I've gone through my share of problems with Netgear routers. They simply suck and that's as far as I know the reason for their forums closing down. My host family in Sweden owned one, which died due to overheat as soon as you downloaded something big ^^
But I don't know your model, maybe that's not an issue. Certainly a problem though is that WEP encryption is w-e-a-k.
Depending on the bit (I think 64/32 are the options) a hacker (I tried) just needs to monitor one day of active internet usage to decrypt the password.
You talked about WPA encryption, if you've got possibility use this one, but as far as I know, Windows has problems with that.
If that is not an option, you should only allow the MAC addresses of your home computers. If you're not an internet coffeehouse owner, then this should be best for you. Everyone, who is not among the allowed MACs will not be allowed access.
To get the MAC-addresses, you can either find them out in your Network preferences (every network card has a unique MAC address) or (I did it this way) you have an open connection, let the computers connect, add their MAC addresses to the "Allowed" list and then you disallow everything else.

Btw. if you forget your password, the easiest way to reset would be to plug in via cable. Not a complete system reset.

Greetings,
Ruben

Site Survey tab shows all the wireless networks. You can use the windows integrated version of the site survey, but most private adapters provide a better interface for connecting to a wireless network.