NIS 2011
Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Vista SP2
IE8 browser
OK this week I am getting cable internet from Time Warner Cable. From what I understand, it will contain a wirelss function.
I will have my desktop PC with printer. And will have a wireless laptop.
I do not want the laptop to share the printer or be able to connect to the PC. I want the two seperate from each other.
But my main questions:
1. Is there anything I need to do with the NIS program to allow the new router to connect the PC to the cable modem?
2. Anything need to do to the NIS program on the laptop to allow it to connect to the wireless part of the cable modem/router?
3. How do I get the cable modem/router to be secure? I have heard that the default passwords are insecure. I suspect the cable modem/wireless router supplied by Time Warner will not be the most secure
4. If the wireless rouuter is not secure, will my NIS still be sufficient to protect the PC and the laptop?
I must say I have great concern about getting cable internet. I am not confident that the same guy installing the phone and the cable TV will also be setting up the internet. I don’t want them screwing up my NIS
First some info.
A router will have two basic ways of security :
a. The router userid and password, which protects the router settings from being changed. Sometimes there is a default password and you need to change that in the router settings.
b. The wireless network name, encryption method, accompanied by a network key, which encodes the wireless traffic between the router and the clients (laptop, desktop, etc)
Some routers force you to change a. and b. the first time you connect to the router to administer the settings(via IP-address).
But.. a lot of routers still keep the default settings, even after first administration effort.
Also remember that the router has a hardware firewall buitin, which offers basic security on network traffic. NIS firewall is still needed, as it offers a lot more.
Read the manual for the router, as all must be there.
You can setup the network yourself, by going to the router's IP-address in your internet browser and enter userid and password for the router (see a. above). Be sure the service people give you the router password.
You can then change the router password (mostly under 'Administration' or the like.
You can also set the wireless network security, mostly under the heading, 'Wireless/Security' and change the network name, encryption method and network key.
There are more ways to protect your network in the router, but most of the time, they are not used and not necessary.
Now to your questions :
1. You do not need to do anything in NIS initially. Once you or the laptop connect to the new network on the new router, NIS will detect the connections and protect them.
2. On the laptop you need to look for the network name you have choosen, then connect to it and enter the network key for the network name (only once, it will be remembered). See under 3, where you can create these things..
3. As stated above you can administer the router and set the routers password, wireless network name, network encryption method and network key.
Be sure to set a strong password for router's admin.
The network name does not really to be changed; if you want to change it to something nice, just do.
The network security should be : WPA2 with AES accompanied by a rather long network key (which can be a funny sentence for instance, that only you will remember). This is the strongest security method and also prerequisite to have the fast internet adapters working on N-speed, due to N-standards.. Store this network key also in a text file on a safe place on your desktop.
4. No it will be secure, as people from outside can enter your network with the default key, maybe do some things wrong on your network and they basically can try to administer the router, if left on default then!
If you do not want to see the laptop anything on your computer : Do not share files, printers in Windows on the desktop, to begin with.
You can also make an adjustment to the NIS settings, Go to network security map and if you see the latop there, change the security setting for it to : restricted.
This will do, i think.
ok let me clarify-
So if my ROUTER IS NOT SECURE, then my PC and Laptop are NOT sufficiently protected with NIS 2011?
First off : I made a little, but important mistake in my answer to question 4; it should read :
...............4. No it will NOT be secure.................etc.
Calls, as long as router is not secure, people are able to connect to your network and, if they know the way (techies), they can do things in your network, which eventuelly can compromise your systems on the network.
F.I.
If wireless network security settings are not set, i.e. no protection, they can connect to your network and :
if then the router password is not set or changed (and they know the defautl pw) then they also take over the network, as they can then change the configuration.
They did this to a network of a nephew of mine, who then had no internet connection anymore, as he did not know the new network security key. I had to reset the router to factory setting to get control again and then within a few seconds they tried to do it again, but i tricked them out.
Setting router and network security is only a few (not difficult) basic steps, which you should demand from and exercise together with the service people.
1. Setting or changing the router password
2. Setting or changing the default network security settings
Once the service people are gone, you can then change the network key again and enter the new one on the clients (laptop and desktop). Then the service people cannot enter your network again and log in to the router.
Calls:
Please read ALL of the above data. Once the router is secured you really have no security issues. NIS is then extra protection but as has been mentioned before multiple times, your IP address will no longer be visible on the net. Just the router IP address.
Secure your router as explained above.
ok thanks. my concern is that it will not be me there when they set up new isp. but my wife who has no concern with this.
Thus my great concern
but I guess what I’m not clearly understanding is shouldn’t my P be safe regardless? I mean doesn’t the firewall and intrusion protection, etc on the PC keep it , the PC, safe?
I mean right now I dont even have a router
its very possible I’m confusing things. Let me see if I have this correct
If the router is not secure, then outsiders can take my internet connection and also block me out of connecting to the internet
BUT if that happened, my NIS would still protect my PC and its content?
Yes, but everything is as safe as your personal behaviour, f.i. sharing things on LAN.
As it's much easier to do things from a Local Network, especially for techies, than from outside (the WAN = Internet), just make your router and network secure and trust us here.
Furthermore It soooooooooo not easy, if you loose your Internet connection and have to cope with it. It's much easier, with a few simple steps to secure your router and network.
Do not let the service people go, before you understand it and read the manual.
NIS 2011
Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Vista SP2
IE8 browser
OK this week I am getting cable internet from Time Warner Cable. From what I understand, it will contain a wirelss function.
I will have my desktop PC with printer. And will have a wireless laptop.
I do not want the laptop to share the printer or be able to connect to the PC. I want the two seperate from each other.
But my main questions:
1. Is there anything I need to do with the NIS program to allow the new router to connect the PC to the cable modem?
2. Anything need to do to the NIS program on the laptop to allow it to connect to the wireless part of the cable modem/router?
3. How do I get the cable modem/router to be secure? I have heard that the default passwords are insecure. I suspect the cable modem/wireless router supplied by Time Warner will not be the most secure
4. If the wireless rouuter is not secure, will my NIS still be sufficient to protect the PC and the laptop?
I must say I have great concern about getting cable internet. I am not confident that the same guy installing the phone and the cable TV will also be setting up the internet. I don’t want them screwing up my NIS
Calls wrote:
its very possible I'm confusing things. Let me see if I have this correct
If the router is not secure, then outsiders can take my internet connection and also block me out of connecting to the internet
BUT if that happened, my NIS would still protect my PC and its content?
HI Calls,
You absolutely need to make sure your router and home network are secured. This means means having encryption and proper password protection enabled. You should NOT ever have a home network that is configured without encryption and proper authentication protocols in force!
The ONLY time this would be OK is if you had wireless access completely disabled where ONLY wired connections are allowed to connect to the Internet through the router.
As hvgsel said make sure your ISP sets this up accordingly.
If in doubt that it is done correctly, be sure to start a thread in Tech Outpost and there are plenty of folks including myself who can help you with ensuring your router and home network are properly secured.
NIS would continue to protect you against inbound attacks to your computer but you certainly do not want an outsider getting access in any shape or form to your internet connection or your home network.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes.
Allen
All, you have been very helpful with this issue. I’m doing this post from my phone and its hard to read back through. But I do clearly understand the need to secure the router.
Lots of mention about “home network”.
But I do not want to desktop PC connected to the laptop. Nor do I want the laptop to be able to access the printer.
So in effect I want the desk top PC with printer, to not be able to access or be accessed by the laptop.
so this said- how do I secure the router? Through the desktop or through the laptop(the laptop will be wireless)?
I know you go through the browser and input the 196.xx.xx.xx
but through which computer?
Can't you read on a PC? It makes all a lot easier, if you read thoroughly trough what we wrote already.
With a router, you have a Home Network by definition.
The modem/router is connected to your ISP at one side (WAN) and connected with clients (desktop, laptop) at the other (LAN) side.
It is the traffic manager between your Home Network (clients) and the connection with internet.
The router is accessible by all clients on the Home Network trough it's IP address. So if you know the router's password, you can login from any client. As long as you change the default password and keep this to yourself, you are the only person who can login to the router and change settings.
The only thing you need to do on the laptop, is to enter the wireless network key (this is not the router password) once, which will/can then be hidden from the user. This key is to protect the wireless connection and you cannot login to the router with it.
On the Home Network, the desktop is not directly connected to the laptop. All traffic between the two eventually goes through the router.
To make resources (files, printers) on any system available on the network, you first need to share them in Windows on either system. As long as you do not share any files/directories and printers in Windows on either system, one system cannot access the resources of the other system. I also described an extra NIS measure to narrow network security down more.
That should do it for now. Just Google a bit yourself on how networks with a router function.
thanks
at work the Norton forums are blocked, so my only oprion is to use the not so smart phone I have. I would google this, but have found google info to only confuse me. that is why I turn to you guys and gals.
First I trust you all a LOT. Which those that know me here slso know I don’t trust easy
Second you all know so much
Third, you know how to make it understandable for dunces like me
I’m thinking this should be a simple process. But I’m also concerned I’ll miss some important step
Part of me thinks the TimeWarner cable internet installer would probably tell us we need to reset the router password, but I didn’t want to take that chance. I suspect that there are lots of people with wireless internet out there that are not aware they need to change the default password
thats why I’m just looking for the simple step by step process. so I dont confuse myself which is easy to do
I already described the two simple steps to make your router and network secure. Change the defaults!
Then the only thing to do is to connect the wireless laptop (with the network key) and the desktop (wired I think?) to the router.
Furthermore you can take additional measures through NIS, which i also already described.
I tried to describe it as simple as possible.
Read once more thoroughly, when you are at home, as it will make you understand more!
And...do not be too paranoid
.
Why don't you wait until the router shows up, at least, or I can see us going through all this again from the beginning once you have the router in front of you.
This whole router thing is a matter of plugging the phone line into it, running the software, going through clearly understandable set up procedures, and then changing the password on the router. My ISP doesn't even send an installer, the router gets mailed in a box with instructions. It's very little different than your DSL box.
thanks all. As I said I wont be home Friday when they come to install. They are doint the whole cable, landline phone, and internet installation, so they will bring the modem. So I wont be there to ask questions and make sure issues are addressed. My wife will be there. As paranoid about this as I am, she is the complete opposite and would feel whatever they the installer, do that must be ok. and then she thinks Norton would protect the router etc
so I have read through all the helpful advice and want to leave a questionlist/outline for my wife to address with the installer. here is what I have. If it is incorrect or I leave something out, please tell me-
1. Change the Router User ID
2. Get the Router default password from Installer guy and CHANGE the router password
3. Steps 1 and 2 are done using the Internet Browser on the desktop PC
4. Change the wireless network name
5. change the Wireless encryption network
6. Change the network key
7. Change the network security to
WPA2 and AES
numbers 4-7 are done on the laptop
this correct?
No.
Here it is then
A. Change router password, network name, encryption and network key in routers settings, all through Internet Browser
- On a wired computer : Go to router IP address of router in your Internet Browser : 192.x.xx.xx
- Enter default password in the screen that pops up. You then enter the router's admin interface
- Goto Administration or the like and change the router's password
- Goto Wireless/Security or the like and change :
a - Network name to : something you want ,f.i. 'CallsHeaven' Note : you do not need change it, but you can
b - Security Mode to : WPA2
c - Encryption/Cypher type to : AES
d - Network key : change to something you like and remember easily, f.i. 'This is the first time i enter a router' or 'my wife has to arrange it'
These are generic settings for the whole wireless network. Now you're done on the router
B. Go to the any client (destop or laptop) which you want to connect wirelessly. This client needs to know the wireless key
- go to the network interface, it's different on XP, Vista and W7 (Vista and W7 are alike)
- look for the network name you just created under A4a
- Click on connect under that neywork name and enter the wireless network key you just created under A4d
Now the laptop entered the right key and is allowed to connect to the wireless network. Laptop will remember key.
If you ever change the key (A4d), then you have to enter the new key again on laptop and other wireless clients.
That should do it.
ok thanks all
I gave the instructions to my wife. Who for the most part thought I was overkill. so now I dont really care. hope she follows through and things get set up safely. but I’m tired of trying.
Thank you all for all the help
well just got a call from the wife. said they installed the router but having issues with wireless laptop connection. said they changed the wireless security and encryption setting .
BUT the router password was not reset. she said shemd do that after the wirelss issue gets resolved. SO we have a router without the password changed, exposed to the internet
GREAT : (