Tag Archives: wireless router

Going potty over SSID

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What’s an SSID (Service Set Identifier)? As defined in about.com:

An SSID is the name of a wireless local area network (WLAN). All wireless devices on a WLAN must employ the same SSID in order to communicate with each other.

If I read correctly, here are some of the golden rules of securing a wireless network:

  1. Change the router’s default admin name and password.
  2. Enable wireless encryption.
  3. Disable SSID broadcast.

I completed the first two earlier on, and found myself at #3. Why should we disable the SSID? Again, to quote about.com:

Wardrivers (aka hackers) sometimes scan for the SSIDs being broadcast by wireless LANs, then set that SSID on their client to attempt to join that WLAN. Knowing the SSID name does not necessarily mean that rogue clients will be able to join the network. It depends on how the network administrator has configured their WLAN, particularly WEP security.

OK, so I oblige and dutifully disable SSID broadcasting in my Linksys WRT54G2. Male offspring boots up his computer yesterday and complains that he can’t connect at all. I’d forgotten about this SSID thing and my stress levels rise up bit by bit—rats. At times like this, it pays to step back as I’ve always said. So I go to the hotel and play some music. And mid-way through my playing it hits my brain like a sledgehammer—you disabled SSID broadcast, dummy.

Went straight to my computer after returning from the hotel. Enabled SSID in my router and male offspring was able to connect; right, got that. Then disabled the SSID. Rebooted male offspring’s computer and he was still able to connect. One more issue resolved!

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Into the fire

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For the past fortnight, I’ve been harassing my supplier about the availability of the Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router, to no avail. Seems as if this product is harder to obtain than hens’ teeth. In turn, my male offspring was asking me every now and then when the router would arrive. Today, as luck would have it, I chanced upon this shop in one of the shopping malls here and spotted the familiar Linksys boxes. Thank my lucky stars, they happened to have one WRT54G2 left. The price was good, so I bought it on the spot. I had just the right amount of cash, and left the shop with an empty wallet.

I was also able to obtain the Linksys USB Adapter, and so here comes my trial by fire—I’ve never actually set up my own wireless network before (I’m a wired kind of guy). I guess there’s always a first time, but I’m going to choose a day where I have an hour or two free, and then plunge into the installation.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Wish me luck.

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Holidays are almost over

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Took a break from piano teaching on December 21, and I officially start again on January 2, 2009. However, it wasn’t a complete holiday as I had to make up some replacement lessons, do the Christmas Choir thingy, and play at the hotel. Still, it was nice to have pockets of free time available, which is why my postings have been more frequent, if you’ve noticed.

I was elated with my male offspring’s PMR results (see my previous post) and since I’m a man of my word, I’ll be getting the Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router and USB adapter for him, so that he can share my Internet line on his computer. But as luck would have it, the darn thing is out of stock here, so I’ll have to exercise patience and wait for stocks to arrive (patience—Joshua, are you reading this?) Then I’ll probably have fun setting up the router, what with my system being on Vista and his on XP. If I can keep Murphy’s Law at bay, I will. For the uninitiated, one famous Murphy’s Law states:

If anything can go wrong, it will.

Fingers crossed, hopefully the router will arrive by next week, when said male offspring goes back to school (10th Grade, or Form 4). I’ll hook up the whole shebang and surprise him when he returns.

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