A few people have suggested i set my wireless router security to WPA2 PSK and use the AES encryption setting.

I have gone into my linksys router and dont have an option for WPA 2 PSK and have the following to choose from...

WEP

WPA Personal

WPA2 Personal

WPA Mixed

WPA2 Mixed

So far its set to WPA2 Mixed is this ok and the encryption is set to TKIP or AES

Just wondered if it was set securly enough.

Also my service provider says i am only on a 1mb connection but when i have gone into the router settings there is a tab called "dsl connection" where i can see the following info...

"Downstream Rate" 7616 Kbps

"Upstream Rate" 416 Kbps

Am i right in thinking I have a 7mb connection and not 1mb i have done an online speed test but this comes back with a download speed of just over 1mb (1214Kbps) to be exact.

Just wondered why the router would tell me different.

Cheers everyone.

The WPA options you give are not standard , they are unique to your make or model, so it is impossible to say which is best; you would have to figure out what each one means in relation to the international standards.

TBH ANY of the WPA2/AES settings should be fine, just use a fairly long, alphanumeric password.

Regarding your 2nd question, I suspect the ISP means that you only pay for a 1Mb connection, so they limit you to this, even though your line syncs at 7616Kbps; in theory, if you switch providers, you should get about 6.5-7Mbps download speeds where the website server can provide them.

HOWEVER, having said that, I know of no ISP's that currently only supply a 1Mb connection, so it could be that the router is giving a false reading, or giving the router's "Best" speeds, not what you are actually getting.

Try Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test and see what the measure your connection as.

Cheers for that link i have tested my speed and get the following...

Download Speed: 1.14 Mb/s

Upload Speed: 0.36 MB/s

Distance from server 50 Miles

I have set the router to WPA2 Mixed and turned on MAC Filtering and gone into each wirless devices details and put them into the router.

I must of used this site before as it appears i have other tests logged and it says the best test result was 2 days ago where i got a download speed rating of 5.75 MB/s

My average download speed is logged as 3.72MB/s

But yet my provider says i am only on a 1Mb connection and would see a difference if i upgraded my service, the thing is it looks like i am getting a better speed than 1Mb so are they trying to bluff me - not sure really.

Thanks

Now i am confused on looking at the best results page it says your best speed result was 5.74MB/s and was tested on 28/01/2008

I never did a test then :eek: :eek: :eek: its the first time i have used this site or service as i didnt know you could check....

How has this happend :eek:

Now i am confused on looking at the best results page it says your best speed result was 5.74MB/s and was tested on 28/01/2008

I never did a test then :eek: :eek: :eek: its the first time i have used this site or service as i didnt know you could check....

How has this happend :eek:

May have been from your IP address, which has been assigned to someone else at some point.

May have been from your IP address, which has been assigned to someone else at some point.

How would this happen i thought you had yor ip address forever (well untill you leave the provider)

Can an IP Address change? and why - The mrs says i must of tested speed in january 2008 but i never. i have been with same provider now for 10 years

FWIW WPA2 personal means WPA2 with a pre-shared key rather than a radius server.

That would be best for you I would have thought, as long as you have a nice long WPA2 string (64 ASCII characters if you can). Also I'd go for AES over TKIP

I have MAC filtering and WPA on mine. Works well

WPA (1) is crackable in no time, so IMHO it's pointless to use it.

WEP works with all devices and not really much easier to crack than WPA1. WPA2 is however much stronger.

How would this happen i thought you had yor ip address forever (well untill you leave the provider)

Can an IP Address change? and why - The mrs says i must of tested speed in january 2008 but i never. i have been with same provider now for 10 years

They change from time to time, your isp has a pool of them to play with.

It's know as dynamic addressing, unless of course your is static, which as you can guess means you keep the same one at all times. In which case you did the test.

HTH:)

cheers for the adcice an this didnt know you could have different ip addresses, I have set the router to "WPA2 Mixed" but if the personal is better will change it to this.

Should I hide the broadcast name of the router or change it from the default "linksys"

I have also disbled the management by wlan does this mean that you cant alter or get to the router settings via a wireless device if this option is disabled...

Sorry for all these security issues but there are some dodgy "driveby people" who have managed to obtain access to nearby home networks one had their router settings completly locked up.

Better to be more secure than sorry i suppose - thanks again.

Edited 16 September, 200916 yr by justinbarrow

Change and hide the SSID. Also change the username and password for your router from the standard 'admin'

I have mine set to WPA2 with PSK only with AES encryption, mac address filtering and SSID visible.

When using PSKs your wireless network is only as secure as the key you use to secure it, so pick a key thats a mixture of upper/lowe case letters, numbers and a symbol or 2. For example it wont take someone to long to hack in if the key is set to something simple like fred or january.

Possibly consider using mac address filtering which allows only certain mac addresses to connect even if the correct psk has been entered.

Also consider changing the encryption type from the crappy TKIP to the much more secure AES, so you really want WPA2 PSK with AES encryption and also set a secure PSK.

I find little point in hiding the SSID, some devices will be unable to connect with it hidden, that and Windows Vista and Windows 7 can see the network even though its hidden, and XP can also see it with a third party app such as netstumbler.