locking my wireless router?

Question

i have a wireless router for my internet, how can i lock it to prevent others frm using up my downloads??in simple terms plz!!! im not that flash with computers

Answer 1

What ever you do, you should use WPA encryption. It's tons more secure than WEP. WEP can be cracked in seconds, and then it's usless. If you want to really go secure, you can set it up through the routers web interface to allow only certain MAC addresses. All of that should be in your routers documentation.

Answer 2

As for your router, you have several options. The two most common ones are Encryption and MAC address filtering.

With WEP, you need to login to your router. This requires you to log in to your router and set it up to WEP, or even better WPA (a stronger form of encryption). You then need to set a key, which is usually a 16 (i think) character hexadecimal number (which means 0 - 9 A - F) and when you do that, you have to from computer to computer and have them "learn" the key. The best way to learn exactly how to do it, read your router's manual.

MAC addresses, now that's a different story. A MAC address is a unique ID that your network hardware has, in the router you can create exclusive lists that allow only certain MAC addreses to acces the internet. This still allows savvy internet users to sniff out your data but they won't be able to access the internet (they can spoof your mac address)

Another preventative measure is to stop broadcasting your SSID. Your router has a "Call Name" that it broad casts to computers so that they know of its existence. Once your computers have become acquainted to the router, you can stop broadcasting it. So new computers won'tbe able to "see" the router.

This is all simplified the best way to learn about the capeabilities is to read the manual for your router.

Answer 3

Your router will have some kind of web front end.
You can access it by connecting your computer to the router via a cable and entering the routers IP address. and then a password.

This information will be in your documentation.

Once you are inside, what you want to do is go to your wireless security settings.

If you don;t have anything particularly sensitive on your computer standard WPA encrytion should be plenty.
If you want things to be really tight you'll go with enterprise WPA and mac address filtering.

If you don;t have the cocumentation, you can usually download it from the manufacteror's website.

Answer 4

It all depends on the router, if you are unsure how to do this i will suggest you contact the manufacturer. in most case you just have to login the router, and enable the security setting, next time you ask a question please include in the question the Name of the router ie. Linksys, Netgear, Dlink etc...

please include the Make and model # of the item you using so we can give you detail instructions on how to do this.

email me if you need help with this issue please inculde the info.

Answer 5

enable mac address firewall on your router config aka 192.168.1.1 in your browser for linksys..admin/password will be admin/password if which i assume you didn't change...so then it would be really easy, you didn't say what you had netgear was admin/admin i think i don't remember it's been a while

then go to start>run>cmd *enter* then "ipconfig /all" *enter* then your physical address will be there from each pc that you use, if you're in windoze of course lol

&set up a 64/128bit WEP key on both the router & laptop for wireless. ++change your password :p

Answer 6

Go to the setup of your wireless router and put a security on it.

Answer 7

Read the instructions that came with your router...

Answer 8

If you need help I can help you. My yahoo is taransdaddy. I will walk you through it if you would like.