Secure connecting to internet with new laptop??

I finally turned on our new Dell 1537 and it found a Belkin G (not protected) connection right away. I believe this is my router in the house. It also searched out a "home" connection that said secure, which I believe is what I labeled it a couple years back. The "Belkin" connection showed full bars but the "home" connection showed only a couple bars? I thought I had the mac address filtering set on the router so I am unsure how it let the unprotected network option show up? I assume this means my neighbors could tap in to my connection to and maybe the files I am now sharing between the destop and laptop?
I would like to have strictly the protected connection with the mac address filtering show up so I know I am the one that can access it. I would also like to see this option show the same full signal bars as the unprotected option provided. Any help would be greatly appreiciated!

 

You can try a simple thing like not broadcasting SSID, and turn on WEP/WAP.

Full signal depends on how your wifi device signals synching with the router's, channel used ...

cheers ...

 

Is there only one channel in the router? I only see one listed to change but since there is a high signal strength for the non secure connection and a weak signal for the secure connection I dont know?

It shows set to channel 11, should I consider changing this to a "better" channel?

By unchecking the brodcast ssid box, does that remove the ability to see the unsecure option when I am searching for a network?

 

Log into your router via a cabled connection and change the SSID to something unique you'll recognize.

Turn off SSID hiding and MAC filtering, they just make your life harder and are useless from a security POV.

Make sure you're using at least WPA encryption AND a long and complex password. Go with WPA2 if all your devices support it. Do not use WEP. If you can't make up a good password, download something like KeePass which contains a good random password generator. This is also a good time to set/change the password for the router's configuration interface you're using right now. Lock it down with a strong password so nobody else can change your setup.

Grab your new laptop and run Netstumbler on it. Find your router and compare its signal strength/channel number with any signals coming from your neighbours. If you find strong signals on the same channel your router uses, move to a different (free or at least less crowded) one. If possible keep a multi-channel gap between you and other signals (e.g. if 11 is crowded move to 6, if that's populated too go to 1).

 

Type 192.168.1.1 in your browser and try these different passwords:

Code:

MiniAP or admin or lastly try puting nothing.

Dont use a login name, just use the above passwords