how can a router be attacked by virus?

Question

i am using the broad band internet service in the office and it is very slow. when we ask our ISP about the problem they always say that it is Virus. but we have Norton ant virus and run it all the time in all pcs. what can be the problem?

Answer 1

Hi Betty:

Try these methods of securing your wireless router.

For security:

1. Don't announce the SSID of your wireless router.
2. Use WPA2 if you can. WPA-PSK if not WPA2, or WEP at the very least.
3. Put the MAC addresses of all of your computers into the MAC routing table of your wireless router and ONLY ALLOW from the addresses in the table of the wireless router.
4. Turn the SPI firewall of the wireless router ON.
5. Filter anonymous or incomplete packets.

The above assumes you have a wireless router. If your router is wired then I suggest you get a hardware type firewall solution and place that before your wired router in your network.

Answer 2

I think it's case of the technical people at the ISP having poor communication skills, which is common. They would have meant that your PC's have a virus, not the router.
Sadly, Nortons is an average antivirus product.
Recommendation: do a thorough scan of your PCs following steps on the attached link. Then review your AV product.

Answer 3

Is the computer generally slow or just your Internet/network access? Sounds like your ISP just doesn't want to deal. Could be a hundred things. If just your network access is slow you should have somebody check your network settings because if there is a conflict between your config and the router config it will totally kill your data flow. There should be an Advanced tab in your Network Connection Properties/Configuration. Try changing the connection type between half and full duplex. Ideally it should be 100 full, but if the router is misconfigured you have to match its settings, usually by trial and error.

Answer 4

Viruses can't attack routers and such directly, as they have no o/s themselves. Flashing the firmware is even a stretch for anything "attacking" it. No need to worry. Also, you have a Mac, don't need to concern yourself with viruses, lol.

Answer 5

It can't. The virus, if it exists, is on one or more of your PCs.

Far more likely is that too many computers are using the internet
at the same time. Thus, there is not enough bandwidth for any one computer to have a decent time on the internet.

Answer 6

try goto start> run> "msconfig" > startup ...and uncheck those unwanted running programs.
restart and see how.