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Securing Your Router

If the wireless network is not secured, anyone with a wireless client can connect to your network, use your Internet connection, and access your computers.

With minimal effort, you can secure your router to prevent unauthorized wireless devices from connecting to your network, using your Internet connection, or modifying your router’s configuration.

SecureEasySetup configures your wireless security method to WPA2 and WPA (PSK) with TKIP and AES encryption.

For additional security, you can allow only specific devices to connect to the router (MAC filtering). If you won’t have any wireless devices connecting to this router, you can disable the wireless features of the router. This will prevent any wireless devices from connecting to your router. These features and more (such as 802.1x) can be accessed on the router’s Security page after the setup is complete.

SecureEasySetup

You can secure your wireless network simply by pressing the SecureEasySetup button below. This will apply wireless security and automatically generate a pass phrase for your wireless network.

Alternatively, you can configure your wireless security options manually by clearing the check box above.

Network Name (SSID)

This is the name of your wireless network. Wireless devices will need to know the network name (also known as an SSID) of your router in order to communicate with it.

USRobotics recommends that you change the network name and treat it like a password. Use a combination of more than eight alphanumeric characters that is not easy to guess (such as “MyHomeOffice” or “Fish81Tree”).

Security

USRobotics recommends securing your router from unauthorized wireless devices by using WPA encryption. If you have older wireless devices that don’t support WPA, you can select WEP. If you want to use a different method later, you can change it on the router’s Security page after the setup is complete.


(The pass phrase must be between eight and sixty-three characters long.)

(The key must be  characters long.)

USRobotics recommends that you treat your WPA pass phrase like a password and use a combination of alphanumeric characters that is not easy to guess (such as “5Rock2Fish9Sand” or “20Dogs933Trot”).

You will need to enter these values when you configure a wireless client. After setup is complete, these values will be displayed on the router’s Status page, and you can write them down or print them.

When you’re finished and ready to apply your changes, press Apply.