Classic Wireless Router Security Settings

How can we implement effective wireless router security settings? Next we will give a comprehensive introduction to this issue. Nowadays, many people are overwhelmed when setting wireless routers after they buy wireless routers. In the face of so many options, what are mandatory and what are optional by default, this article provides a brief explanation. The wireless configurations of a wireless router are as follows: Wireless Settings and wireless security settings.

Wireless Router Security Settings

There are some default values in the factory of the wireless router, which can be used continuously. However, when setting the wireless router security, you must set two parameter values: SSID and channel.

1. SSID

SSIDService Set Identifier (SSIDService Set Identifier) is short for "Service Group Identifier". It is a Identifier of a wireless network and is used to identify wireless devices found on a specific wireless network. All workstations and access points must use the same SSID to communicate with each other. The SSID is a 32-bit data, whose values are case sensitive. It can be the physical location identification of a wireless LAN, your name, company name, or company name and department, preference, and other characters you like.

2. Channels

Channels are also called "band channels". They use wireless signals as data transmission channels for media transmission. A Wireless Broadband Router can run on many channels. Various wireless network devices located in the adjacent range must be located on different channels; otherwise, signal interference may occur. If you only have one device, the default channel value of 6 may be the most suitable. Unless you need to change the channel for special reasons, such as Bluetooth, microwave oven, mobile phone tower, or other access points in the region, use the default factory value. If you have multiple wireless routers and wireless access points on the network, we recommend that you stagger the channels used by each device. For example, there are 11 channels in the 802.11g and 802.11b wireless standard, however, there are only three non-overlapping channels (Channel 1, Channel 6, and channel 11 ).

The most fundamental purpose of applying encryption technology in Wireless LAN is to enable wireless services to reach the same security level as wired services. To achieve this goal, the IEEE Standard adopted the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy: Wired peer-to-peer confidentiality) Protocol to set up a dedicated Security Mechanism for wireless router security and encrypt business flows and authenticate nodes. It is mainly used for the confidentiality of link layer information data in Wireless LAN. WEP adopts symmetric encryption mechanism, and data encryption and decryption adopts the same key and encryption algorithm. WEP uses an encryption key (also known as the WEP Key) to encrypt the data portion of each packet exchanged on the 802.11 Network. After encryption is enabled, two 802.11 devices must enable encryption and have the same encryption key to communicate.

WEP encryption is disabled by default, that is, not encrypted. The wireless security parameters are optional wireless router security settings. Generally, there are three parameters:
1) WEP Key format: hexadecimal digits and ASCII characters.
2) WEP encryption level: Disable encryption function; 4064) bit encryption; 128 bit encryption. The default value is Disable Encryption ).
3) WEP key value: set by the user.

The Wireless Router Security Settings work with wireless NICs that support encryption to encrypt data transmission, making it difficult for others to steal your information. WEP has two encryption levels: 4064 bits and 128 bits. it is safer to Use 128 bits for encryption. The WEP key can be a group of randomly generated hexadecimal numbers or ASCII characters selected by the user. Generally, we use the latter, which is manually input. Each Wireless Broadband Router and wireless workstation must use the same key for communication. Encryption is optional. Most wireless routers disable Encryption by default. Encryption may affect transmission efficiency.

To enable the encryption function, select the "ASCII character" WEP Key format. In the WEP encryption method), select 4064) bit or 128 bit WEP Key. When using the 4064) bit encryption method, you can enter four different WEP keys, but only one key can be selected at the same time. Each key consists of 10 hexadecimal characters. Save it in a Wireless Broadband Router. By default, select one of the four keys for use. When using a 128-bit encryption party, Enter 26 hexadecimal characters as the WEP Key. In this case, you can only enter one key. Some wireless NICs can only use 4064) bit encryption, so you may need to select a lower encryption level. If all your clients support 128-bit encrypted communication, select 128-bit. If any client supports only 4064-bit encrypted communication, select 4064-bit.

To enable encryption, select the encryption type and WEP Key for all wireless routers, access points, and workstation on the network. You can change the key frequently to increase network security. When changing the key used by a wireless device, remember to change the keys for all radio devices and Access Points on the network at the same time.