How do I make my linksys wrt54g router secure?

[rlenahan]

I have accessed the router through 192.168.1.1, and see that the wireless security mode is set to disable. Of the options below,which one do I want: WPA Pre-Shared Key WPA RADIUS WPA2 Pre-Shared Key Only WPA2 RADIUS Only WPA2 Pre-Shared Key Mixed WPA2 RADIUS Mixed RADIUS WEP

 

[curtains]

Just use WPA Pre-shared key (which means you have a password (the key) that you tell everyone that will be using it (pre-shared), WPA2 is the same thing with better encryption i believe, I won't go into Radius, standard home users don't need it + its a lil complicated.

Why WPA? and not WPA2? because sometimes older wireless NIC's don't support WPA2 (some don't even support WPA, in that case you need to use WEP), and if your friend comes over and wants to use the wireless there is a higher chance of his NIC supporting WPA.

Why not use WEP then? Yes WEP is the most compatible form of wi fi security as its the oldest, but WEP uses a hexadecimal passwords meaning you can only use the characters 0 - 9 and A - F (total of 16 characters meaning hexadecimal (hex 6 decimal 10 = 16) and you can't make proper words and it makes the password harder to remember and you end up with passwords like bc2548daf9.

WPA is more than secure enough, and no one will bother trying to hack into your wireless connection unless your someone special and everyone knows it, and knows where you live.

moral of the story WPA pre-shared key is more than secure enough for your average user, yet still pretty simple to setup.

Note: the password (pre-shared key) for WPA must be minium of 8 characters long (numbers and letters only, case sensitive) maxim of 64 characters (if i remember correctly)

oh and the newer the NIC the more it'll support, so newer laptops/computers/wireles NIC will support WPA2 etc