Build a Wireless Network

Wireless router lab

In this lab we set up a wireless network and connect two computers to it.

Key points we had to accomplish were:

-change the SSID
-use WPA-2
-manually code MAC addresses of the two computers into WAP
-set up a share folder and access it over the network

We were to also download Zone Alarm and set up the firewall to only allow the IP addresses we added.

There were several things we had to do before starting this lab. Using the command prompt, I located my MAC address. I also had to download and install Zone Alarm. In the process of doing this, Vista SP1 had to be installed on my computer. I downloaded and installed this as well. While doing this I ran across several fail attempts to install the service pack. I think this may be because I have not activated Vista with Microsoft. Tyler was able to successfully load and setup Zone Alarm so we used his machine to complete that part of the lab.

To set up the wireless network we used a Dlink DIR-615 router.

The D-Link Wireless N Router DIR-615 has speed capacity of 300Mbps. At $40, it is cheaper than some Wireless-G routers. The DIR-615 does not have Gigabit Ethernet or USB ports, but it does have decent wireless throughput speed and range. It comes with a user friendly Web interface and a fairly large set of networking features.

Set up of the router was very simple. Unpack it from the box and plug it in to the Ethernet connection and to the power supply. I then plugged my computer's Ethernet cable into the back of the router. Before installing the wireless adapter on my computer I did an Internet search on the DLink site for the default IP address of the DIR615 router. The address is 192.168.0.1. Entering this address in the address bar opened the routers setup wizard.

First I changed the SSID. From the DLink wizard click Setup / Wireless Setting / Wireless Network Setup Wizard - Changed the Network name to BackRow.

Then clicked Manual Assign Network Key, use WPA encryption. Next I entered NET125LABBACKROW as the Wireless Security Password.

I then loaded the driver CD that came with the wireless adapter. I plugged the adapter into a USB port and ran the install wizard. Nothing complicated about it. The wizard guided my through the steps without complicated or confusing questions. I restarted by computer and it connected to the internet without problem.

I pinged Ross just to make sure the network was working and the ping was successful.

We were supposed to download Zone Alarm and practice pinging each other and setting up a firewall. Zone Alarm downloaded ok but could not run it until I downloaded SP1 for Vista. I could not get SP1 to install, probably because the version of Vista I am running is not activated. Tyler was able to load Zone Alarm on his machine so we observed him and tried to ping his machine. With Zone Alarm off we could ping his machine. When he turned it on we could not. He could adjust the settings to allow us to access his machine by entering our IP address. He could also add an IP address range that would allow us to access his machine.

As part of our lab, we were to block access to our network by entering our MAC addresses into the access control panel of the router and block all others from access. This worked perfectly. I was able to add Ross' MAC address to the setup and he was able to access a share folder I put on my desktop and view a file I put in the folder. When I deleted his address he could not. He added me to his file sharing and I view a folder he set up that had a picture in it. There are a couple of options when it comes to file sharing. I can give the person wanting to share, access to just a particular folder, or I can activate the public sharing folder so anyone on the network can see it. I can adjust the settings from full access to read only also.

So that did it for this lab. We set up a wireless network, changed the SSID, used WPA-2 encryption, hard code the MAC addresses into WAP, Setup a share folder and access it. Download Zone Alarm and set up a firewall to block access to your computer. Ping each other to see if connections between computers were working.