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Tag: wireless networks

Why you need to secure your home wireless network

Recent news out of Minnesota caught my attention and underscores the need for people to secure wireless networks at home. Barry Ardolf is accused of tapping into his neighbor’s home wireless network and sending a threatening e-mail to Vice President Joe Biden, making it appear to have come from his neighbor. As if that’s not enough, he also is alleged to have sent sexually explicit e-mails to his neighbor’s co-worker; sent child porn to his neighbor’s boss; set up a MySpace page in his neighbor’s name and posted child porn on it; used fake e-mail accounts set up in his neighbor’s name; and stole personal identity information.

Presumably none of us have neighbors like Ardolf, but I assure you many of us have neighbors who wouldn’t hesitate to use your wireless network if you make it easy for them. And default settings on common wireless routers do just that.

Here are five steps you should take to securely configure your home wireless network: Continue reading “Why you need to secure your home wireless network”

K-State wireless upgrade coming Dec. 23

The wireless network infrastructure will be upgraded for the Manhattan campus 7-11 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23. This upgrade will allow for the deployment of newer generation 802.11n access points.

During the upgrade, wireless network service will be interrupted for all locations on the Manhattan campus. Some areas will experience longer outages, depending upon the order in which the wireless access points that provide service are upgraded. If you have any questions, contact network@k-state.edu.

Wireless network upgrade Wednesday evening, Aug. 12

K-State’s wireless network will experience brief service disruptions 10 p.m.-midnight Wednesday, Aug. 12, across the Manhattan campus during a software upgrade. This will improve network security for nearly 1,000 wireless access points on the campus. Any questions or concerns should be sent to the IT Help Desk, 785-532-7722, helpdesk@k-state.edu.

Q/A: Where’s the dang K-State wireless (WEP) key?

The wireless encryption key (WEP key) to access K-State’s wireless computer network can be a bit hard to find on the university website. One reason is that K-State users and techies refer to it with various labels — including these, in alphabetical order:

  • airport key (Macs)
  • card configurations
  • encryption key for wireless access
  • K-State WEP settings
  • network key (PCs)
  • password for the (wireless) network
  • WEP key
  • wireless encryption key
  • wireless network card configurations

The easiest way to find it? Look for any of the above terms in the IT Index list of resources. Regardless of how you find it, a K-State eID and password is required to access the encryption key for K-State’s wireless network.

SMTP block starts Dec. 20 on residence hall and campus wireless networks

On Saturday, Dec. 20, K-State will start blocking the SMTP e-mail protocol on the residence-hall networks and the campus wireless network. This is necessary in order to intercept the large numbers of spam e-mails sent by compromised computers on those network segments and to help keep K-State off spam block lists. Continue reading “SMTP block starts Dec. 20 on residence hall and campus wireless networks”