Wireless Router Passwords

[Uncle Otto]

OK I have a question about security on a Belkin wireless router. I live alone, and no one has access to my router or computer but me. If I click on the menu bar icon for the router on my Mac, it shows a little padlock next to the signal strength indicator. Same on my iPhone. I assume that means unauthorized persons outside of my home can't just casually get onto my signal and start using the internet--------right?

But I have never set it up with a password. It came out of the box with the PSK already on it. That is how I got the computer to work with it. No problem. But poking around in the system settings, I see that I can set up an "Administrator" password for it. There is none right now by default.

What is the difference between the Admin password and the PSK, which Belkin also describes as a password? Which one keeps unauthorized people from accessing my signal? Do I even need the Admin one since I live alone? Would another person with another computer be able to get onto my signal with either one?

Thanks in advance for any help, as I've searched several different ways and all I get is how to set up WPA/WPA2 security and so on.

 

[Vic Vega]

If no one can get on to your network because you are using an encrypted key they can't get to the management interface of the router unless they have physical acces to it. if no one does, you don't have to worry about the router admin password.

 

[Sam.I.Am]

Just consider it another layer of (optional) protection. I would put a password on it just to be sure that nobody gets in and makes it so that you can't use it without physically resetting it to the factory defaults, but that's me. You don't have to do it and the odds are that it's going to be unnecessary for you to do it but it would really suck if someone messed up your router settings as a "Joke" and you could've prevented it.

 

[Uncle Otto]

Thanks both of you for your responses. That pretty much explains something I had found confusing. I also see that I can change to PSK to anything I like as long as it's with permissible characters. I may do that as the one it came set up with is only 8 characters long.

Do you have any idea what the range on the signal might be? My iPhone can pick it up about 100 ft out in the parking lot (I live in a condo complex). I can pick up two or three others myself, and I know one of them is in my building.

 

[Saule]

When I bought my router, I set a password. But the computer would not connect. Did not bother to rectify it, I deleted it. My house is in the middle of 27 hectares of my land, so I feel pretty safe here

 

[Beerina]

I assume you can't use the browser "URL" to gain management access through wireless, just through the hardline connection, which I have to my main computer.

On the other hand, it's also connected directly to the cable modem, so I assume that counts as a hard line anyway.

I wonder if the router is smart enough -- disallow access through either wireless or the port through which the Internet flows, and just allow through a hardline port.

 

[Sam.I.Am]

Thanks both of you for your responses. That pretty much explains something I had found confusing. I also see that I can change to PSK to anything I like as long as it's with permissible characters. I may do that as the one it came set up with is only 8 characters long.

Do you have any idea what the range on the signal might be? My iPhone can pick it up about 100 ft out in the parking lot (I live in a condo complex). I can pick up two or three others myself, and I know one of them is in my building.

Yeah, I'd change the default right away. I'd also change the SSID from the default value only because it's a sign to someone that perhaps you are using the factory settings (which are widely available on the internet for all makes and models). Just make sure that the password isn't something that someone might guess if they know something about you or any sensitive information like your social security number (I actually saw that once). Always assume that someone who's really smart has the tools and the knowledge to find out your password just by examining your wireless network packages over time.

Range is whatever it is for that model minus whatever any particular problems with the specific location may be. For example I can move my router 5 feet and lose signal to half of my house.

 

[Sam.I.Am]

I assume you can't use the browser "URL" to gain management access through wireless, just through the hardline connection, which I have to my main computer.

On the other hand, it's also connected directly to the cable modem, so I assume that counts as a hard line anyway.

I wonder if the router is smart enough -- disallow access through either wireless or the port through which the Internet flows, and just allow through a hardline port.

That's usually selectable in the routers setup menu and there is no guarantee that the router manufacturer set up the defaults to require a hard line to access the router management screens. That's not to say that they didn't, they probably did, but it's something that I always look at during setup just to be sure.

 

[rjh01]

Just watch out for someone parked just outside of your house. They may discover that you do not have a password on your wireless router (or is that modem?). They use it to download illegal stuff. Then the police come knocking on the door asking tough questions and laughing at you when you say "I know nothing."

 

[One Skunk Todd]

Just for fun you can set the SSID to "FBI Surveillance Van #2".

 

[TheL8Elvis]

<snip>

Do you have any idea what the range on the signal might be? My iPhone can pick it up about 100 ft out in the parking lot (I live in a condo complex). I can pick up two or three others myself, and I know one of them is in my building.

<snip>

Range is whatever it is for that model minus whatever any particular problems with the specific location may be. For example I can move my router 5 feet and lose signal to half of my house.

The range is much greater than you think. Remember, both the broadcast and receiving device require antennas ... just because your device can't get the signal from 30' away doesn't mean someone with a better antenna can't see the signal from your router from 100' away.

In my experience, no wireless routers block access to the management interface via the wireless network and require a wired connection. The most granular it typically gets is to block admin via the WAN interface by default, allowing all LAN connections.

 

[catsmate]

I assume you can't use the browser "URL" to gain management access through wireless, just through the hardline connection, which I have to my main computer.

No, the default is generally to allow access to the config page over wireless. Plus the default username/passwords are rather simple to find.