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Help, wireless problems...

student_trap

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
Hello,
I posted a similar thread in 'mac periferals' recently but had very little response, my problem is slightly different now, so here goes:

Last night I got connected to broadband via a Netgear DG834G Wireless modem/firewall/router, and all is fine as long as i use and ethernet cable.
However, it has always been my intention to go wireless (hense the wireless router!), but i cant for the life of me work out how to do this!!! I was using the netgear online router set-up to try this for an hour last night with no results, all i managed to do was set up a network from my mac (10.3.7), but that seems useless (and i'd like to delete it but can't figure out how!!!). There is only my mac that i want it to connect to, so i don't want to create some sort of network that my neighbours could steal ;-)

What should I do?
Can I set it so only my mac can use it (If so how do i find my MAC address?)?
How do i set up protection (its asking for key's???)?
Can anyone explain how this should work, or link me to a step-by-step guide etc?

Thanks for any help you can give
 
There are two steps. Firstly, you have to set up the router. Secondly, you have to connect the Mac to your network. I have a feeling it's just the first bit we're having trouble with and once it's sorted, your Mac should connect seamlessly.

Have you followed this guide rigourously? When you get to the part where you need to navigate to http://192.168.0.1, what browser were you using? I find Safari doesn't co-operate at this point but it works with Explorer for me (I imagine Firefox too). Have you got this far?

Now, have you perused through the manual to configure various wireless settings including the security of your network?

Your MAC address is in System profiler, under the Network section. :cool:

I don't have a Netgear router so I can't be of much more use, sorry. :eek:

Good luck with it all. :)
 
thanks for the reply,
I have got this far, i am connected to the internet, my problem is when i have to set the wireless up, i can turn it on, but am not sure what i should do such as what settings, what encription, how to get the encription working etc etc, and also when i do finally get this side sorted, how to get my powerbook to see the thing!

PS thanks for the manual link, it seems like it might be uber useful:)
 
ok guys i made it, im now wireless, im using something called WPA encription and have got the "use interferance robustness" active under the drop down airport menu!!!! anyway, was wondering how safe I am, can people still snoop in my files???:eek:
 
WEP Encryption is a 28 bit encryption scheme (I think it's 28). People can snoop around your files if they can guess all 28 characters.

In other words you are perfectly safe. Cruise the net as if you were connected with a wire.

EDIT: Oh , and I forget what Interference Robustness is, but I know that it is not necessary.
 
WEP uses an RC4 cipher with a 40 bit key or 108 bit key to encrypt traffic on the wireless network. However, because of the way it was implemented, the key can easily be recovered by passively eavesdropping on the network.

MAC filtering won't help this as once the key is recovered, identifying and spoofing a valid MAC address is trivial. Anyone who knows how to crack a WEP network will know how to spoof a MAC address.

A better (but not best) solution is WPA Personal with a strong pass-phrase. Do not just pick a word out of a dictionary, since WPA PSK is still subject to dictionary attacks (the attacker simply tries every word in the dictionary to generate keys and find out which one your network is using).

The best solution is WPA2 Enterprise with a RADIUS server to authenticate on a per-user basis using 802.1x. Each person who wants to join the network is issued a username and password, and each person is individually authenticated before they are allowed to join the network--much like each user account on you Mac is authenticated separately. This solution requires supporting hardware, extra setup, and extra software that most people just won't want to go through.

I would recommend that if your hardware supports it, go with WPA Personal with a nice strong pass-phrase.
 
thanks for the replys, I'm now using the WPA personal setting, so hopefully all should be good.

so is this use interferance robustness thing worth using, and what is it?
 
interference robustness has something to do with microwaves and stuff

i remember reading the airport express manual and i think it says to turn robustness on if you are near devices that can interfere with the wireless connection...

ill edit this post if i find where i read this :)
 
Well done student_trap, I knew you'd get there. The manual's pretty comprehensive but easy to understand.

Interference robustness effectively reduces the range of a network whilst ensuring less packet loss. It's to be used in areas with high interference.

I think it only applies if you're using an AirPort base station with interference robustness also turned on. In other words, you may as well turn it off. :)
 
MJ, Thanks Again!

Hurrah for your details on the Interference Robustness option :)

When I couldn't locate anything in the Help menus or the manual(s) about IR, I went with my oft-chosed Default: "Huh, must not be too important" and left it off. :D
 
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