Changing router password and key

[Songbird69]

I have had the fios triple since July 2009.  they originally set up my desktop computer.

since then I have added a laptop and a wii

I dont understand some of the security issues.

when I set up the laptop, I had to pick my router and enter that long key.

as far as I know, if my neighbors wanted to get on my system, they would have to enter that long key.

am I supposed to change that key? I dont see how anyone can figure it out

also I never changed the password on the router.  can I do that now? do I have to?

what can I do to protect my info

and if I change the password/key, is that going to affect any of my wireless connections like the wii and the laptop?

thanks

[viafax999 · Accepted solution]

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@Songbird69 wrote:

I have had the fios triple since July 2009.  they originally set up my desktop computer.

since then I have added a laptop and a wii

I dont understand some of the security issues.

when I set up the laptop, I had to pick my router and enter that long key.

as far as I know, if my neighbors wanted to get on my system, they would have to enter that long key.

am I supposed to change that key? I dont see how anyone can figure it out

also I never changed the password on the router.  can I do that now? do I have to?

what can I do to protect my info

and if I change the password/key, is that going to affect any of my wireless connections like the wii and the laptop?

thanks

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It's up to you whether you change the wep key or even if you use wep security.  If you want to change the wep key just go into admin and enter a new key and apply it.  After that any existing wireless devices would have to have the key changed on them to whatever the new key you entered was.

Wpa and wpa2 are meant to be more secure.  If you want to change to that select the relevant radio button in admin and enter your own passphrase.  All wireless stations would then have to have their wireless setup modified with the new security type and passphrase.
You can also change the SSID if you would rather make it something more meaningful for youreself.

You should change the router password as everybody know the default userid and password and so currently you are vulnerable to somebody else connecting to your router as an administrator and modifying your settings.. 

According to the 9100EM user manual you can set up new users too with differenet access levels.  However it appears that you can only set up one new user and the access levels are web admin or users and am not sure what a user could do unless it just web access for viewing purposes.

[tsauter1]

Standard security practices says you should always change the default passwords and keys. The Actiontec defualt passkey is wep based encryption, which is a half step up from no encryption, and can be hacked in roughly 2 minutes. Not to mention the standard wep key that is programmed on the router is based off the router serial number and has the SSID in the key. Not secure at all.

You should change the security to WPA2-TKIP if all your devices support it. Which they should. Change the pass key to a sentance that is easy for you to remember. Sentances are the hardest passwords to break. Change the SSID to something personal aa=nd set it to not broadcast. If you set it up to not broadcast the SSID the only way to connect to the network is if you know the network name(SSID).

After making the changes, you wil need to create a new network connection and manually input the SSID and passkey as the PCs will not be able to "see" the network.

[Songbird69]

thank you both for the responses!