Setting Up Linksys 54g Router Wireless Security With G4 And G5

dage007dage007
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Just currious if anyone is familiar with setting up the 54G linksys wireless router with the mac. I had originally set the 13 character password on the router. My windows xp machine picked it up right away, and when i entered the password on the xp machine it took it and worked great. I tried this on the mac's under the airport setting and it says invalid password or something like that. When I go to the router though and disable wireless security, all the computers work. Thats how I know that the macs can connect to the wireless router.



Any suggestions as to wich security setting I should chose on the wireless router and what to enter on the macs.



thanks



dave

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    On the mac, you need to add the dollar sign ("$") to the beginning of WEP passkeys/passphrases (for all [?] non-Apple Base Stations). Mac is funny like that. I have a Linksys wireless b router, so it'll probably be the same. Anyway.

    Don't forget you can turn off the SSID broadcast and filter MAC addresses if you want securer. WEP keys alone are hardly a guarantee: anyone with enough enthusiasm can run some program (available for the mac too, I reckon), that returns the WEP key after a day or three of capturing your network flow out of the air.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    To activate the added security features I mention, check out this excellent resource..
  • Reply 3 of 6
    dage007dage007 Posts: 320member
    Just currious what the ssid is? I found what you said about filtering the mac addresses. Does that mean that I go to each pc and mac and find out what there mac addresses are and enter them in? Also will there mac addresses change over time or are these constant with the computers maybe they make a number off there serial number or something. Just currious thats all



    thanks



    Dave
  • Reply 4 of 6
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dage007

    Just currious what the ssid is? I found what you said about filtering the mac addresses. Does that mean that I go to each pc and mac and find out what there mac addresses are and enter them in? Also will there mac addresses change over time or are these constant with the computers maybe they make a number off there serial number or something. Just currious thats all



    thanks



    Dave



    The MAC address of a device never changes: you can consider it as tattooed on every network card (be that ethernet, Airport). This means that if you have a powerbook with an airport card, you'll have two MAC addresses: one for the ethernet plug, one for the airport card.



    As I understand the Linksys website, the MAC filtering is only effective for devices that connect wirelessly (I don't know about you, but I have one comp connected to the router through a wire). I haven't checked out how true that is.



    That SSID Broadcast means, to explain it easy, that you get to see the name of the network in the Airport menu item, when you click that. If you turn it off, you will no longer be able to just choose the name of your network. On the mac, in the Airport menu item, you'll have to choose "other" and then enter the name of your network and its password. The most immediate advantage of disabling SSID broadcast is that casual observers will not see your network on their computer, even if they were sitting right next to the base station. However, as with the WEP key, this feature is not enough in itself to keep 'wardrivers' off your network.



    IMO MAC address filtering is by far the best feature to use if you want to secure your network, but the other two sure help a lot.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    BTW, you'll find the MAC addresses of your macs in the System Profiler (access via "About This Mac" > "more info"). It's the thing labeled "ethernet address", and it's in the form of xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
  • Reply 6 of 6
    dage007dage007 Posts: 320member
    great stuff... Looked at the link you sent and it explains things fairly well. GOnna set all this up now and thanks again



    dave
Sign In or Register to comment.