i'm wireless, me

[The T.I.B.]

Setting the scene:
Well it was time to get a new router for my internet and I thought, well better go wireless. All well and good until I got down to PC World and they had about 25 different boxes on the shelf with pictures of routers on the front. Right. What makes it worse is that PC World (and Currys and all the rest of those rip off merchants) don't feel the need to label anything with prices and theres never a spotty purple shirted geek around when you need one.

The Knowledge:
Anyhow after several hours, felt like days, i worked out there's two kinds of routers, one for cable internet and one for phone line internet. The phone line ones are more expensive cos they have a ADSL modem built in. like about £15 more expensive. I'm not sure whether you can use an ethernet router on the back of an ordinary ADSL modem, I thought that was probably pushing my luck, also I didn't trust the crappy virgin modem i had from years ago.

Keeping It Cheap:
Anyhow, to cut to the chase, I went for the cheapest ADSL one I could find, also it had the most impressive name. Hence the ZyXEL Gateway, maximum scrabble points for that name. £49.99 all in, and you get a free USB wireless attachment for your laptop/computer/hamster/whatever.

Token poor camera phone picture:
Check me badass wiring, if the green lights flicker it means there's life inside:


Plugged it in, innit:
So I was sceptical, and I gingerly (in more than one way of course) plugged the thing in trying not to follow the 3 sets of disagreeing instructions too closely. And I was shocked when the little bastard worked first time. And I tried it wireless too, and yep - worked again. And I tried restricting wireless to only the one computer and yep, first time. So bonus marks for the thing actually working just like it said on the box.

So here's to cheap shared porn access, and Retro-Renault from the comfort of my bed

Summary:
If you were interested I might have saved you a boring sunday trying to get your head around internet routers, if you were expecting an article about cars then you must be bored shitless by now. Get out more.

[bbracer16valver]

really that easy??

what about settings and WEP keys and all?

or is you jackable init?

[The T.I.B.]

Originally Posted by bbracer16valver

really that easy??

what about settings and WEP keys and all?

or is you jackable init?

haven't got into WEP yet, just got it working.
if jackable means other people can share my internet then big deal.

EDIT: Just found WEP settings, means everyone now has to have a user name and password to get access

[Neal]

so where you said you 'tried restricting wireless to one computer', how did you do that without using WEP? MAC filtering?

having a 'username and password' for each user is not WEP, i dont know what youve done there. Maybe given router setup acces to various people? WEP is just an 8 character (for 64-bit) alphanumerical HEX string as a key (oo-er!). There's also WPA which is just a later more secure take on WEP.

That router looks like a cloned D-link btw.

[The T.I.B.]

yeah i thought i did... MAC filtering

how to make the system hacker proof then?

I can set Authentication Required... then i'm asked to choose which 'Key Management Protocol' - choice of: 802.1x, WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2, WPA2-PSK.

Then get the choice of if I want 'Dynamic WEP Key Exchange' 64- or 128-bit WEP.

Then ask me something about an Authentication Database.

So.. I've got WAN, LAN, WEP, WAP, SWAT, YMCA, FPSML..

Any pointers? Ta!

[bbracer16valver]

i will let you no when i have learnt how to hack the BT HUB showing in my bedroom