Netgear WNR2000 blocking wireless access

[colbun32]

Hello, I have a Netgear WNR2000 router that I have had for quite a long time. I am happy with it and never have any problems with it. I use it with a wired connection and can browse the internet with my PS3 or play online PS3 games.

I chose a wired connection when I set it up because I thought it would give me a better connection to the internet through my PS3 rather than a wireless connection.

The thing that is annoying me is that every time my friend comes into my room to play online PS3 games is that he takes out his mobile phone/ipod thingy and uses my internet connection to browse the internet! He says how all my neighbours have their wireless connections 'locked' yet mine is wide open. Why is this? And how do I fix it?

I have looked at network settings and when I choose to configure a wired connection it doesn't ask for a pin/key/WAP2 thingy. When I choose to configure a wireless connection it asks for SSID/WAP2 etc but when I go to test it I get a 'Cannot obtain IP address'

Is it because I leave the DHCIP thingy blank? I dont know what it is. So even although I want a wired connection, in order to stop my friend or other people using my internet I need to use wireless? Or if I manage to set up a wireless connection with a protection key, I can then go back to wired and my wireless is secure?

Please help me I dont understand.

 

[mickevh]

Your friend is correct, leaving your wi-fi unsecured means anyone can use it to access your network and use your Internet service. You may not care about that, but you are (usually) liable for anything that eminates from your home to the Internet, and of course you are paying for the bandwidth. If your wi-fi is not secure you leave yourself open to people stealing your bandwidth.

I think you may be confusing two things:

1) Your routers wi-fi is not secured to prevent anyone else using it.
2) You cannot establish a connection to your router using wi-fi because of a configuration issue on your client device.

You do not need to use a wi-fi connection to set your routers wi-fi settings. If you can get to your routers admin pages using a wired connection, then that's fine.

Most routers are configured using web pages, it's manual will almost certainly tell you the web address you need to surf to in order to access it's configuration screens.

Most routers will let you simply turn the wifi off completely. For sure no-one can use it then.

But if you can't, or want to leave it on, then set up some "security" on it to control who can connect and some encryption isn't a bad idea. Choose WPA2 or WPA "security" and AES or TKIP "encryption" if you get those options, AES is the best. The choose a "name" that your router uses to advertise itself - that's called an "SSID." Finally set a suitably unguessable passphrase (AKA wi-fi key.) The best passphrases (like passwords) are a mixture of letters and number, upper and lower case and a reasonable length, say 8 characters or more.

Again, the router manual will tell you the specifics of how to do all of this.

 

[colbun32]

Hi thanks for the reply. I went to www.routerlogin.net and once logged in managed to add a WPA2-PSK (AES) and changed my password from 'password' to a more secure one.

The only thing I didn't know how to do was give my router a 'name'. I'm sure it's there somewhere, I'll have a more thorough look next time.

Ideally I would prefer just to turn it off. If I do this then it wont affect my wired connection? I'll have a good look at the admin page again.

Funny how I've had this router for ages and only found out today that there was an 'admin' page on the internet that I could use to control the router settings. I thought I had to do it through the settings when setting up my wired/wireless on my ps3.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[colbun32]

I looked at the admin page again.Under 'Wireless Settings' it says 'Name (SSID): NETGEAR', I take it this is where I can change the name? Can I change it to whatever I want?

On the 'Advanced' page, under 'Wireless Settings' it has 3 ticked boxes for

- Enable Wireless Router Radio
- Enable SSID Broadcast
- Enable WMM

Do I uncheck 1, 2, or all of them? Which boxes do I uncheck to turn my 'WIFI' off? I think it would be best just to turn it off completely, as I never use wireless, I only ever use wired for my ps3.

Thanks again.

 

[mickevh]

Funny how I've had this router for ages and only found out today that there was an 'admin' page on the internet that I could use to control the router settings.

The admin pages aren't "on the Internet." There's a little mini web server built in to your router that hosts the configuration screens. If you were to disconnect your ISP line, you would still be able to access these admin pages. I'm guessing, but I suspect the router will intercept the name lookup for www.routerlogin.net and redirect it to it's internal web server. If you were to use the IP address of your router in the web browser, it will very likely take you to the same place.

A lot of SOHO equipment (and quite a lot of professional enterprise class equipment) has built in web based configuration these days.

 

[mickevh]

'Name (SSID): NETGEAR', I take it this is where I can change the name? Can I change it to whatever I want?

Yep: SSID is (effectively) the "name" that the router uses to advertise itself. It's what all the wi-fi scanners "see" when they are listing the available wi-fi networks.

On the 'Advanced' page, under 'Wireless Settings' it has 3 ticked boxes for

- Enable Wireless Router Radio
- Enable SSID Broadcast
- Enable WMM

Do I uncheck 1, 2, or all of them? Which boxes do I uncheck to turn my 'WIFI' off? I think it would be best just to turn it off completely, as I never use wireless, I only ever use wired for my ps3. Thanks again.

I think just the top one will suffice. That will tell the router to turn it's radio off, and if that isn't working nothing can connect wi-fi.

It'd be just as well to leave the Security settings and passphrase set. Thence, when your guest turns up and wants to connect wi-fi, all you ave to do ie re-enable the radio and tell him the current passphrase, then turn it off again when he leaves.

 

[colbun32]

I turned off the 'Enable Wireless Router Radio'. Thanks for your help.