Gigi

I just got off the phone with Netgear tech support, and they were no help at all!!!

I had two questions for them:

1. How do I set up security for my MR814 router if I do not yet have my wireless CF card for my Ax? I was told that all the security on my PC is fine and that I have to wait until I get my Ax before I can set up security for that. How can he know my PC is secure??? And is it true that I cannot set up security on my router now?

2. How do I disconnect from the Internet (I'm on DSL) yet maintain my network connections? At first I was told to disconnect my router. When I complained that it was a hassle because it was hard to access the back of my CPU, I was told to do a search on www.wown.com to find the answer!!!!!!!!!

Very frustrating for a newbie...

rxman

Im not a brain about these things but I do have a 814. I would follow instructions on how to configure the 814. When U get to that page on IE click on wireless section. When there as U move pointer over different items it explains how to secure. Even though U dont have wireless card U can still enable protection. Also I think it comes with firewall (Netfreedom) which I would install.

Roundboy

netgear support has been horrible for every product i owed from them.

My 814 would not give a DHCP ip address to my NETGEAR cf card.

it would work w/ static though.

Netgear said that it was a problem of the cf card with the axim, and drivers should fix it (but none are avaiable)

I bought a linksys router.. and it works perfectly w/ the netgear cf card.

go figure...

Securing the router should be easy.. read the stick at the top of the forum... do this:

1) enable 128 bit wep
2) only enable dchp for the # of computers you have.. better yet.. static
3) disable sid broadcast
4) disable access for wireless pc's using 'any' ssid name
5) enable only certian mac addresses to connect to your ap

this is the best you can get.. until 802.11 i comes out

wpeace

That is a VERY strange answer for any WiFi vendor.

Your Access point should be configurable and therefore you can in fact setup security ahead of time. The real problem is insuring you've correctly documented what you're done so the Axim can connect when you get it.

There are two areas you can configure on your Access point.

SSID - identifies the router and advertises a name to connect to. Most WLANs ship with an SSID of Default or the vendor name. The WiFi cards are typically set to "Any" which allow them to search for all Access points.

Encryption - Here is where you really want to make changes because if you set this you are forcing the WAP to only accept connections from cards with the correct key. Your router documentation should tell you how to create the key and be sure you copy it down since you will have to use it when configuring the Axim to connect to the WAP.

HTH

__________________
Wesley

Gigi

Thanks rxman, Roundboy & wpeace for your replies. I have gone back to my wireless settings page and made some changes which I think have resulted in some encryption....fingers crossed...

Roundboy, could you please explain the meaning of dchp and mac addresses? When I changed the configurations, I did not notice these terms listed. Are these changes that I make on my PC or Ax or both?

Thanks,

Gigi

Roundboy

ok..

on your axim, you have the ability to change the properties of your network adaptors.. akin to the properties of 'Network Neighborhood' in full windows OS 's

I leave the ip settigns of my cf card to be 'pull an ip address automatically' which tells my card to get a DCHP ip address (one assigned by my router)

if i wanted a specifi address, say, 192.168.0.xx (this is the standard ip address block for netgear routers, and where xxx is from 2-254)

I would put this address in my axim network neighborhood. This would tell my axim to ALWAYS use this address.. but this limits you as you use other wifi hotspots.. address could be taken, invalid, etc.


Your router on the other hand can control what addresses it gives out and who can connect. You can set up a DHCP 'pool' telling the router how many addresses it should give out, and what the range should be.

for example.. a dchp pool of '5' and a starting address of 192.168.0.5 means that:

5 computers could connect
the first machine gets 192.168.0.5

the next gets 192.168.0.6

etc etc until all 5 are used up. This changes if you specified a static ip in that range.. or if a computer previously had an ip adderess. Your computer usually wants to get the same ip address it had before.. so.. a comp on .5 before -- even though the first computer booted up -- will try and request .5 before it requests .2 (my exact knowledge on this is fuzzy.. has to do with dchp lease??)

Moving on... Mac address... this is like a unique id number for every piece of computer hardware.. most popularly used for nic's.

you can tell your router to ONLY let the computer whose network card has a mac address of 00:5b:02:f2:9a connect. This effectively limits the computer allowed to use your network.

Routers have different features... i forget exactly where all this is on the netgear.. but my linksys lets me maintain a seperate list for wired and wireless clients... as well as say ONLY these mac addresses can connect... OR say that all computers can connect EXCEPT certain mac addresses.

I hope I helped out :)

Gigi

Thanks very much Roundboy. You've helped me understand the terminology much better. Since I don't have my CF card yet, I cannot make any adjustments to its configuration right now, but I will look more closely at the wireless settings on my Netgear. Such a long process...:rolling:

Thanks again!

Gigi

Just an update on Netgear tech support:

After my last call, I filled out an online survey asking about Netgear's service. Of course I did not submit a glowing report. Today, someone from Netgear called to follow up and I was able to talk to someone who answered all of my questions and went through the encryption process with me.


So it seems that Netgear is listening to its customers and trying to offer good service after all! :D