MiFi Security Settings - Suggestions

user9248 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2010 Posts: 7

Hi All,

Just looking to see what other people alter for settings in an effort to make their MiFi more secure. I have found that my MiFi starts to drop my wifi connection when I change certain security settings.

1. Alter default DHCP IP addresses - At first I was changing the IP address range of the MiFi to something other than 192.168.1.1. I figured since most routers default to 192.168.1.1 it might be better to use something like 10.5.5.1. However, if the MiFi is serving up the IP addresses I guess it really doesn't matter.

2. WPA vs WPA2 - I found that when trying to use WPA2 my MacBook Pro and the MiFi would dropp connection quite a bit. I had to revert to WPA

3. Disable/Enable SSID broadcast - I would like to disable SSID broadcast however my connection seemed to be unstable when connecting. Often times when entering the SSID manually alternate versions of it would show up in the available network list. The SSID plus some funky characters (unicode) at the end of it.

4. Change the WiFi channel. I wanted to use something other than 6 or 11 as to avoid interference.

Right now I have a pretty stable connection but that is because I have SSID broadcast enabled, I am using the default IP range and the default WiFi channel (11).

What do you all change for your security and performance reasons?

Torrey · Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:36 am Post subject:

Disabling the SSID broadcast and using WPA2 security are enough to keep anyone out of your network, especially since the MiFi's WiFi range is limited to 30 feet. Even if someone figured out your SSID there is no way they would have time to perform a brute force attack against WPA2 in the amount of time they would be in range of your MiFi.

Have you performed all the latest software and security updates for your Mac? There are some recent updates that fix WiFi stability issues.

user9248 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2010 Posts: 7

I have found that disabling the SSID broadcast causes my connections to become "unstable". What I mean by this is constant connecting and disconnecting. I am using a MacBook Pro. I would very much like to have the SSID disabled.