I finally secured my wireless system but....

In the last few weeks there has been other unsecured wireless networks showing up, and since I have 3 computers at my house that are using our wireless router I decided to finally secure ours when I noticed someone else was using our bandwidth.

So I now have a secured network (wep enabled) and set up the wireless computers with the password so they can log onto the network, and all works fine BUT whenever I reboot any of the computers it tends to pick up on one of the 4 unsecured networks in my neighborhood. Is there any way I can stop this? (all are using XP-pro) It is not that big of a deal, the computers run 24 hours most of the time but it would be nice to know how to eliminate those weaker signals/networks so as to not be bothered with them.

thanks!

Rob

There should be a way to change the order of the networks that it picks up. Put your network at the top of the list. It will still see the others, but it should connect to whichever one is at the top first.

track them down and complain!

thats what i did with my neighbor.

there is nothing worse than it picking up on your neighbors signal at like 2mb/s when you should be at 54mb/s

except for the fact that i have 108g and my niehbor has a wireless B network and drags mine down to 54.

when i was trying to block it completely out to get my 108 back, the manufacturer said the only thing I could do would be to get my neighbor a wireless 108 system for christmas

Quote: Originally Posted by [Tarkus]
There should be a way to change the order of the networks that it picks up. Put your network at the top of the list. It will still see the others, but it should connect to whichever one is at the top first.

That is exactly what I am trying to figure out how to do, I cant find a way to do that.

Quote: Originally Posted by '[Stompinround
' track them down and complain!

thats what i did with my neighbor.

there is nothing worse than it picking up on your neighbors signal at like 2mb/s when you should be at 54mb/s

except for the fact that i have 108g and my niehbor has a wireless B network and drags mine down to 54.

when i was trying to block it completely out to get my 108 back, the manufacturer said the only thing I could do would be to get my neighbor a wireless 108 system for christmas

There are 4 other networks in my area, (all unsecured) one of them is a very weak signal that shows up as a bunch of numbers, like they put the WEP code as the name of the SSID, the others just list the default name of the router. I may be able to help our one neighbor set his up securely but I have no idea where the other signals are coming from. They all just started popping up around Christmas time.

thanks!

I use and advise people to use mac filtering too only the devices I choose can connect all others are blocked also after you set up wep and mac filtering disable ssid.
Another tip that people dont do is change the routers default password when I used to do cable installs that was one of the first things I told people wanting to use a router. Most cable companies dont support routers and unsecured routers cause alot of problems for the ones legally paying for their service.

Thanks for the tips Madgamer, and now I feel a bit silly...... When looking at the small window for viewing "Wireless Network Connections" there on the left side is an option to change the order of preferred networks. it was staring me in the face this whole time, guess I need to start wearing those glasses that sit here on my desk.....

thanks to all for the help and advice!