I had my friend install a wireless router for my laptop. I cannot find it anymore in my choice of online connections. Is it possible he could have used the MAC or S/N number to disable it from his own computer?
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I had my friend install a wireless router for my laptop. I cannot find it anymore in my choice of online connections. Is it possible he could have used the MAC or S/N number to disable it from his own computer?
October 30th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
He may have disabled SSID broadcast, in which case you won’t detect it; it has to be entered as ‘Add a network’, with the PSK (password) to access it.
It will show up, after ‘Added’ to the Network list, and you tick ‘Refresh Available networks’..it will say ‘Connected’ after making the necessary handshakes.
To prevent anyone from fiddling with your network, do the following:
Wireless Router settings:
In a browser address bar, type 192.168.X.X (look in user manual for exact address for administration interface address) & find the Settings for Security (or similar):
Set for WPA (or WPA2 if your computers support this level) & AES.
(Use WEP only as a last resort: it’s apprentice work to crack).
Also;
Turn off ‘SSID’ broadcast(be sure to give your router a new name & write it down; it will be needed to ‘Add’ your wifi network);
Disable: UPnP & QoS (unless using VoIP or gaming);
Enable: Router management username & bulletproof passphrase (not the same as Internet access password, which would be the PSK (pre-shared key)).
PSK’s should be over 7 characters; letters & numbers (mixed), not words.
Put this # on tape & put on the top of the router for easy access.
Note: Mac address filtering will prevent freeloaders, but will not deter committed hackers. Mac addresses are on the front end of packets, therefore un-encrypted & easily copied and used to ‘spoof’ packets; enabling a ‘man in the middle’ attacks.
You might want to also set (in ‘Connections’) as ‘always connected’ to prevent disconnects when there is no activity to or from the Internet.
Computer settings:
If you’re using Windows to configure your Wifi, go to Control Panel> Wireless Network Connections> Wireless Networks tab; here you’ll need to identify all wifi networks your system ‘sees’, then for your own (or preferred) network, highlight it, then ‘move up’ to the top of the list: then, go to ‘Advanced’ button, tick ‘access points only’ and uncheck ‘Automatically connect to non-preferred networks’>close> OK
October 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
yes its totally possible, but that doesnt look like the case. if you cant see the connection on the laptop then it might be a driver issue.
go to the start menu,
go to RUN
type in “CMD”
at the command prompt (cmd) type: ipconfig /all
if you get an ip address then you have a connection just fine
look at the default gateway and type that address into your web browser to get to the router settings page and lock anyone else out.