Detailed description of Wireless Router Security Settings (1)

Source: Internet
Author: User

For wireless network users, it is important to know that no matter how secure the wireless network is, unless end-to-end encryption technology has been deployed, otherwise, there is no real security. Although wireless technology has many advantages in availability, wireless security cannot be compared with wired network security.

DHCP-automatically obtain an IP address or a fixed IP address?

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) allows you to set the Protocol for a Dynamic Host to automatically assign IP addresses to each computer in the LAN, you do not need to set IP addresses, subnet masks, and other required TCP/IP parameters.

It is divided into two parts: one is the server side (here refers to a Wireless AP or wireless router with DHCP service functions ), the other is the client (the user's personal computer and other wireless client devices ). All IP network settings are centrally managed by the DHCP server and are responsible for handling the DHCP requirements of the client. The client uses the IP Environment Information allocated from the DHCP server.

If the DHCP function is enabled on the Wireless AP or wireless router to provide dynamic IP addresses for hosts connected to the wireless network, it is easy for others to use your wireless network.

Therefore, disabling DHCP is necessary for personal or enterprise wireless networks. DHCP should be enabled unless it is in public wireless "hot spots" areas such as airports and bars. Generally, set the DHCP server to "disabled" under the "DHCP server" setting of the wireless router. In this way, the network is still unavailable even if the wireless network signal can be found.

We recommend that you do not use static private CIDR blocks that are not commonly used. Instead, use the common private CIDR blocks 192.168.0.0-192.168.0.255.

WEP, WPA-WEP encryption, or WPA encryption?

Wireless Network Encryption provides security by encrypting the data of the radio receiver. It is mainly used to keep the information data of the link layer in the wireless LAN confidential. Currently, most wireless devices have the WEP encryption and WAP encryption functions. Do we use WEP encryption or WAP encryption? Apparently, WEP appears earlier than WAP, and WAP is more secure than WEP.

WEP adopts symmetric encryption mechanism, and data encryption and decryption adopts the same key and encryption algorithm. After encryption is enabled, both wireless network devices must use encryption to communicate with each other, with the same key and algorithm. WEP supports 64-bit and 128-bit encryption. For 64-bit encryption, the key is 10 hexadecimal characters (0-9 and A-F) or 5 ASCII characters; for 128-bit encryption, the key is a string of 26 hexadecimal or 13 ASCII characters.

Here we will show you how to make WEP safer:

(1) using multiple sets of WEP keys and a set of fixed WEP keys will be very insecure. Using multiple sets of WEP keys will improve security, but note that WEP keys are saved in Flash, therefore, some hackers can access your network by obtaining any device on your network;

(2) If you are using an old vro that only supports WEP, you can use a 128-bit WEP Key, which makes your wireless network safer.

(3) Change Your WEP Key periodically.

(4) You can download a firmware upgrade from the manufacturer's website. After the upgrade, you can add WPA support.

WPA can solve security problems that cannot be solved by WEP. To put it simply, the low security problem of WEP comes from the sharing of one key by each device on the network. This key is vulnerable to insecurity. Its scheduling algorithm's weakness allows malicious hackers to easily intercept and destroy the WEP password, and then access the internal resources of the LAN.

WPA is a new technology that inherits the basic principles of WEP and solves the disadvantages of WEP. Because the algorithm for generating encryption keys is enhanced, even if the group information is collected and parsed, it is almost impossible to calculate a general key. The principle is to generate different keys for each group based on the general key and the serial number indicating the computer MAC address and group information. This key is then used for RC4 encryption like WEP.

Through this processing, the data exchanged for all group information of all clients is encrypted by different keys. No matter how much data is collected, it is almost impossible to crack the original universal key. WPA also adds functions and authentication functions to prevent data tampering in the middle. With these features, all the shortcomings that were previously criticized by WEP have been solved. WPA is not only a more powerful encryption method than WEP, but also has a richer connotation. As a subset of the 802.11i standard, WPA consists of authentication, encryption, and data integrity verification. It is a complete security solution.

We would like to remind you that the data transmission encryption function is disabled when many wireless routers or APs are leaving the factory. If you use it without further settings, then your wireless network becomes a "undefended" decoration.

We recommend that you use WPA encryption.


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