Saturday, January 19, 2008

go Wi-Fi easily!!!


Recently i Wi-Fi'ed my house by running Linksys WRT54G Broadband Router. We got Airtel broadband 384 kbps connection along with a Beetel BX220 Modem. Though the net is filled up with a lot of tutorials on configuring the router, a complete start to end procedure couldn't be found. hence i thought of taking a ride along this path.

The Beetel BX220 is a modem cum router.Now you can access this modem at 192.168.1.1 When you attach the Linksys router it would also take up the same IP. So there are two work-around.one is by bridging the modem or to change the IP in the Linksys router.To bridge the modem connect to it and disable the DHCP server in it and change from PPPoE to Bridging.By this the modem would act just like an relay nothing more.

Now connect the cables in the following way.from phone to modem and from modem to router.now connect the computer to the router.The router could be reached at 192.168.1.1 The configurations out there are quite simple (refer to the userguide of the router for more info) Since the modem is now no more than a dump relay the router has to dial-up and other stuffs .Hence select the PPPoE by providing the username and password provided by your ISP.Enable DHCP server in the router.


4 points are to be addressed here to ensure security.

1. Change the password of the Router.

2. setup a Security pass key .Though WEP is widely used, going for WPA is recommend as it is tough nut to crack than WEP.

3. Disable SSID broadcast.By doing so your Router connection name wont be seen at all.Only the people who know the SSID can connect to the Wi-Fi.The crackers now have another field to crack apart from the Key.

4. Enable MAC Filter.By doing so you can allow only the systems with the MAC address you have enlisted to connect the Wi-Fi.

By now you would be up and running Wi-Fi

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