Securing Your Wireless Router

To secure your Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G router, use the following steps:

• 1. Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.1.1.

  2. If you have changed the IP address of your wireless router, enter that into the address bar. By default, the address is 192.168.1.1.

  3. Enter the user ID and password for your router. If you haven’t changed it, the default username AND password is admin.

  4. The Basic Setup Web page should now be displayed in your browser. Scroll down the page until you see Maximum Number of DHCP Users.

  5. By default, many different computers (default 50) can connect to your router. We will limit the number of computers that can connect to just those computers that you use.

  6. Count the number of computers that will connect to the router, and type it into the Maximum Number of DHCP Users textbox.

  7. Scroll down to the bottom of the Web page and click Save Settings. Once the settings have been saved, click Continue to return to the Web page.

  8. Click the Wireless menu option.

  9. Next to the Wireless Network Name option, type in a name for your network connection.

  10. Click the Save Settings button and the Continue button to return to the Basic Wireless Settings page.

  11. Click the Wireless Security sub-menu option at the top of the page. This is where we will provide the most important security setting.

  12. Next to Security Mode, select WPA Personal from the drop-down list.

  13. Next to WPA Algorithm, select AES. If you have trouble connecting to your wireless router, select TKIP.

  14. Specify a long WPA Shared Key with a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation. Once again.

  15. Make sure you write down this key somewhere, either on a piece of paper or in a text document on your computer. You will need this information when you connect to your wireless network.

  16. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the Web page, and then the Continue button.

At this point you have secured your wireless router and network, so all you need to do is connect to your router from your computer. When prompted, enter your WPA Shared Key exactly as you specified it in the router.