Router security question

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

My router is an old Linksys WRT54G router which is set to WPA TKIP .

I installed 1903 on my laptop yesterday and I keep getting a warning about it being insecure and I should use WPA2 and the wireless connection won’t start at bootup unless I physically connect to the wireless which works fine after that. So I went to the router and looked and there is a WPA2 personal available in the settings but it say’s that all computers need to support it and it must be turned on in all computers.

My question is, if I turn on the WPA2 personal in the router, what do I have to do to each computer on the network? I looked at the properties for my wireless adaptor on my laptop and I see that there is a selection for WPA2  but there is no selection for my ethernet adaptors on any of the desktops or the laptop.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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[PKCanoDa Boss]

You do not need the encryption for a wired connectin b/c nobody can get in the wire, like they can get in the WiFi radio signal.

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

So basically, I just need to change the setting in my router and on my 3 wireless adaptors to WPA2 personal? Will I have to change anything else, as in “Shared Key” etc. or is it that simple?

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[PKCanoDa Boss]

You may have to login again on the wireless connections, but it shouldn’t be a hastle.
Remember, if your phone, tablets, etc connect to your WiFi, you need to check them too.

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

PKCano wrote:

Remember, if your phone, tablets, etc connect to your WiFi, you need to check them too.

Yes we have a number of tablets, and cell phones so do I need to set them up all over again to get a signal?

In other words, reconnect all of them and hope they will work with WPA2?

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[PKCanoDa Boss]

Yes, the connection has to have the right kind of encryption. You should at least check that all connect.

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

I reset the router this morning to WPA2 Personal TKIP+AES and so far devices have connected although I haven’t checked them all since my girlfriends phone is with her at work.

On the computers, I changed the wireless adapter settings to WPA2 AES and they seem to connect ok. My phone and tablets still connect and say WPA/WPA2 PSK .

Just curious though, when I bring up my chrome browser and put in the IP for the router it say’s “not secure” before I put in my password to access the router interface.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

On your router, do you have the option to select WPA2 Personal AES only (no TKIP)? If so, choose that option – TKIP is almost as insecure as WEP.

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

Yes, that option is there but I chose TKIP+AES because I was afraid that an older tablet might not connect since it is still on Android 5.1. I guess that I could try just AES and see if that is the case or not.

My reasoning was an article in the Router help files.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

I’d be surprised if the tablet doesn’t support AES. If it were my setup, it’d be worth the extra effort to try it with the more secure encryption.

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

Thanks for the “Heads Up”, I went ahead and changed it to AES only and the tablet is still connected and say’s WPA2 PSK instead of WPA/WPA2 PSK, my phone say’s the same thing.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

Excellent – that’s your best option.

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CADesertRat

[AscarisAskWoody_MVP]

As you’ve already discovered, Android 5.1 will happily connect using WPA2.  My even older tablet that came with Android 4.0 worked with it just fine, so anything newer would not be a problem.  Just a heads-up for anyone who may come across this later and not be sure about what works with what!

Group "L" (KDE Neon User Edition 5.17.5).

[bAskWoody Plus]

CADesertRat wrote:

Just curious though, when I bring up my chrome browser and put in the IP for the router it say’s “not secure” before I put in my password to access the router interface.

Just because you’re using http, not https?

Microsoft Edge, Win 10 Pro 1909: Group ASAP (pioneer)

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

Question,

Would changing the security level disrupt my internet speeds? The reason I ask is that my internet has become erratic today after changing to WPA2 and my ISP say’s that everything looks fine from their end so it must be a computer problem.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

WPA2 is generally faster than the other encryption methods, provided your router’s hardware can handle the load. You might be facing an issue where the old Linksys just doesn’t have the CPU to deal with it.

I notice you’re on an absolutely ancient firmware version – the current one is 4.21.5. If you read through the release history, they’ve made a ton of changes since that device originally shipped. I’d update to current firmware and see if it makes a difference from a performance standpoint. The addition of QOS features (and others) might also be worth the trouble.

Btw, what kind of Internet connection do you have? If it’s anything better than the slowest DSL, you’d likely see a performance boost by getting a more modern device. Your current router has a max. wireless throughput of around 20mbps when a single device is connected.

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Ascaris, CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

jabeattyauditor wrote:

I notice you’re on an absolutely ancient firmware version – the current one is 4.21.5. If you read through the release history, they’ve made a ton of changes since that device originally shipped. I’d update to current firmware and see if it makes a difference from a performance standpoint. The addition of QOS features (and others) might also be worth the trouble. Btw, what kind of Internet connection do you have? If it’s anything better than the slowest DSL, you’d likely see a performance boost by getting a more modern device. Your current router has a max. wireless throughput of around 20mbps when a single device is connected.

1- Where did you find firmware 4.21.5? The last firmware I saw (quite some time ago) for this router was the firmware I have on it. I rechecked a number of times after that and there was nothing newer.

2- I am on a wireless ISP. I have a radio mounted to the house with a small power supply with connections in/out to router. My signal comes from an AP about 2 miles from here.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

Here’s the US Linksys WRT54G download site:

https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=148648

Looks like that version 4.x.x firmware is from 2012.

Any idea what the speed of your Internet connection is at the radio itself?

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

Here are the results I got from that link:

I googled for firmware for the router and found nothing newer than the 1.02.8.

jabeattyauditor wrote:

Any idea what the speed of your Internet connection is at the radio itself?

No but they are blaming my router so I will hook my computer directly to the radio (bypassing the router altogether) after while to see if the router is the problem. I’ve had signal trouble out here before and their first words are that it must be on my end but sooner or later they discover it was their equipment.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

Do you know for certain the hardware version of your router? There are firmware downloads available for versions 4 and lower, which makes me wonder if they ever had a version 5 of this model.

Supposedly, the version number is right after the model number on the router label itself. If there’s no version number listed, it’s version 1.

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

jabeattyauditor wrote:

Do you know for certain the hardware version of your router?

Yes, it is version 5.

Just to be more specific about your earlier question about the speed here. On this wireless connection I get anywhere from 5 to 15 Mbps max download (depending on how many people are on the service at a given time) but my average speed is around 12 Mbps, so as you can see, I don’t really need a high $ router. It would be a waste of money. I’ve actually looked around for a newer router a couple of months ago but most of them want you to go through the cloud for setup etc. and I want no part of that, setup needs to be local and the throughput speed really doesn’t have to be exceptional for my case either. I believe that ASUS is a local setup, not sure.

I’m out in the sticks and there are no options other than wireless/dialup/satellite and I tried the satellite and do not want to go back to that and never to dialup again, LOL.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[jabeattyauditorAskWoody Lounger]

Probably the best reason – if it even applies to you – for a new router would be for faster connections between your connected devices. If you’re doing file backups over WiFi, that would improve considerably.

I’ve had good luck with Netgear routers (and most other non-mesh, non-cloud-assisted devices) – as long as I steer clear of anything Alexa or Google-enabled, I’ve been able to find local configuration options. Even the routers that brag about their app-enabled setups usually support direct connection and locally-web-based setup.

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CADesertRat

[CADesertRatAskWoody Plus]

jabeattyauditor wrote:

Probably the best reason – if it even applies to you – for a new router would be for faster connections between your connected devices. If you’re doing file backups over WiFi, that would improve considerably.

Then I probably wouldn’t need a new router unless this one dies. All backups are clones from the computer itself to USB devices so it’s all local. Transferring files through our network is plenty fast for our purposes. The only slow device is that Android 5.1 tablet that I mentioned earlier as it’s getting pretty old.

When and if they ever get faster internet out here, that would change things. Thanks for the advice.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
4 Win 10 Pro all 1903 (3 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

[AscarisAskWoody_MVP]

I would definitely agree… wireless-g is very slow by modern standards.  I am one who really gets a kick out of using older gear for as long as possible, but even I upgraded from G to N, and then again recently to AC.

Even if the maximum throughput is enough to reach the speed you want, you can’t always count on getting that.  Radio frequency interference, greater distance from the router, etc., can reduce the speed, and if you have more than one device associated, the available bandwidth has to be divided among the clients.

In my neck of the woods, using the 2.4 GHz frequency that G uses is hopeless during some times of day.  There are more than 30 wireless SSIDs I can pick up from my home, and the vast majority are in the 2.4 band, and that doesn’t count the bluetooth and other stuff that also uses that frequency.  I can’t even use bluetooth to stream audio from my laptop to my desktop (which has better speakers) sometimes, and the antennae are two feet apart with complete, unobstructed line of sight.  I’ve tried multiple bluetooth adapters/PCs on both ends, and it’s the same story.

The 5 GHz band, by contrast, is great.  I’ve been using it for about ten years… back when I moved into the place I live in now, my router was the only thing on the 5 GHz band that I could detect, and now there are a bunch of them.  Still, there are a lot more channels available in 5 GHz, so it has more capacity than the overcrowded 2.4 band.

If your client devices support dual-band operation, I would definitely suggest a router with the same capability.

 

Group "L" (KDE Neon User Edition 5.17.5).

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CADesertRat

[Paul TAskWoody MVP]

CADesertRat wrote:

when I bring up my chrome browser and put in the IP for the router it say’s “not secure”

That’s because you are using HTTP and that has nothing to do with WPA/2.
Very few home routers use HTTPS – it’s an overhead they don’t require because all the data is local.

cheers, Paul

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CADesertRat

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