IT and computer science

Wireless Router Lab Fall 2020

2020 IT101 Router Lab

This semester’s Router Lab must be a little different from what has been done in the past. Since we can’t have students physically working together, we have come up with a 2-part Lab to teach the fundamentals of computer networking in a way that will hopefully interesting and informative. This Lab will take some time so don’t start it with the idea that it can be completed in a short amount of time. Thankfully it can be paused at almost any point and for minutes, hours or days. We do not recommend doing the Lab in one sitting but there is also something lost in breaking it up too much. The two major parts, Lab Part A and Lab Part B are related, and Part A should be done first.

Lab Part A

Watch the video at: https://youtu.be/BlZRe8t94i8

This video is 7:21 minutes long.

Read the Router Lab instructions from last semester: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pm78uljtkklsa2t/RouterLabIT101-Instructions.docx?dl=0

Please be aware, you are not actually going to follow the instructions, they are just so you can see how security is added to a router. When you have completed the video and read the instructions, please answer the questions below in a Word Document which may require some research on the Internet. Lab Part 2 needs to be on the document too.

Please note: The material in the instructions was designed to be done by students in groups of three in the classroom. Most of the mysteries of routers are unlocked by this exercise. Please do not take this information and attack your home router. Part B will give you plenty to do at home to discover what is flowing through the airwaves around you. There are most likely many people in your home who are dependent upon the wireless router. Please don’t experiment on the household router, you could really do some damage to your relationships with other people in the house. If you have a spare router then by all means, see if you can duplicate what is done in the video.

1. Why do most laptops have 3 MAC addresses?

2. Why do the instructions tell you to change the SSID once the router is accessed? What is the purpose of the SSID?

3. When you click the wireless icon on your computer you get a list of all the wireless networks available to your computer. Where does Windows get the names (SSIDs) of available wireless networks? (not how do you see them)

4. How do networks not broadcasting their SSIDs show on the list in question 3?

5. In looking at the list of Wireless networks in Windows 10 , how do you know which networks are secure (encrypted) and which are not?

6. How would you tell if someone outside your family was using your wireless network?

7. What happens if you disconnect your computer from the wireless network it is currently attached to? Does your browser still work? If so, to which network are you now connected? If not, why did that device lose connectivity? (make sure you actually do this and see what happens!)

8. If a wireless network does broadcast its SSID and does have encryption turned on, how secure is the network? Do those two things make a network more secure or less secure? (explain in detail)

9. Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) could be an easy way to get your devices connected after changes to the router’s security if your router has WPS. What is WPS and what are the steps to use it? (give it a try if you can physically get to the router)

10. We are using WPA2-Personal authentication in this Lab. Why WPA2? What are the other options? (please give details)

11. Name three different steps in the Lab that secure the wireless network before he added Access Control (MAC address filtering).

12. Can you add encryption to your network without using a network key (passkey)? Explain…

13. The Access Control he added is very different from the encryption security he applied earlier. What makes the Access Control different from the other forms of security?

14. There are 2 lists of wireless networks on your computer. One is a list of currently available wireless networks. The other is a list of wireless networks for which the computer has stored the connection settings even if those networks are not currently available. This second list can only be reached by clicking “Network & Internet settings” at the bottom of the available networks list and then selecting “Wi-Fi” and “Manage known networks”. Take a screenshot showing the names that appear on the list of Wi-Fi networks listed in “Manage known networks” on your computer.

Lab Part B

This part of the Lab is hands-on using your Laptop. There is plenty of room here for experimentation so don’t feel constrained by the Lab instructions. There are a number of tools available to find information on whatever network you are attached to. Using the knowledge you gained watching the video in Part A along with these tools, please answer the questions below. These questions should be included on the document you are posting to Blackboard for this Lab.

Tools for exploring the wireless networks around you – Note: these tools all have free versions although they may be time limited. Be very careful about downloading and installing. They may take a bit of study to figure out how to get them to work but the Internet has all the answers. One tool that works on both Windows and Mac is Default Router Login Details (https://proprivacy.com/guides/default-router-login-details).

Windows: A lot of what you need is built into Windows. There is information in “Network and Internet Settings” and of course clicking on the wireless icon will bring up all of the wireless networks that are within range of your computer. The Command Prompt in Windows also offers the ability to get lots of information as long as you know what to type. There are instructions within the Lab document that explain how to get to the Command Prompt as well as what to type to get what you need. This is also demonstrated in the video. The most powerful program you can get for free is Slitheris (https://www.komodolabs.com/ ). Download & install it, click on “Scan All IP Ranges” then give it some time and it will give you more information than you want about your network. The other helpful tool is iNssider (https://www.metageek.com/support/downloads/download-inssider-win.html ) which will show you everything you need to know about wireless networks around you. One other is called Netspot (https://www.netspotapp.com/netspotpro.html ) which has both Windows and Mac versions.

Mac: There is a problem here in that those who are using Macs do not get a true picture of what is happening with your Internet connection because it is “handled” by VMware. There is correct information about your connection over on the Mac side. I will try to give you alternatives to the Windows programs but there are not nearly as many free programs over on the Mac side. If you are using a Mac (and you might want to borrow a Windows machine for this Lab) you need to state clearly in the document you submit that you were using a Mac and which side you were using to get the answers to any given question.

There is a lot of information available from a program built into the Mac called Network Utility. It is somewhat hidden in the Mac OS so here is how to find it:

There are three easy ways to find Network Utility and launch it without digging around in hidden folders. The first is to go to the Apple Menu, select About This Mac…, click on “System Report”, and then select Network Utility from the Windows menu. The second is even easier; click the Spotlight search icon (it looks like a magnifying glass) on the right side of the Mac menu bar, then type in “Network Utility” and press the return key. The last way? Just ask Siri — say “Launch Network Utility” and the app is immediately on your screen.

Network Utility and Info

Most everything you need is here. Try out the tabs to get different info from this utility.

Netspot for Mac (https://www.netspotapp.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAqo3-BRDoARIsAE5vnaLkCqhNyGQcrjDWHA0V1yMYumOK6VMKx_7czE7RjJdnBtC6Q3SPBWwaAnc1EALw_wcB ) is excellent. There is also a Mac version of iNssider (https://www.metageek.com/support/downloads/download-inssider-mac.html ). Netscan is the closest thing to Slitheris for the Mac (https://download.cnet.com/NetScan/3000-2085_4-75206915.html ).

15. Please list the IP address and MAC address for your computer (use the MAC for the connection you are currently using to get to the Internet) and for the router. The router has 2 IP addresses, one for your network and one for its Internet connection.

16. What are the default username & password for your router? Why is this different than your WiFi password?

17. How many different SSIDs are being broadcast by your router? (include a screen shot)

18. What type of security is being used to protect the wireless network in your house? How do you know?

19. How many devices are connected to your home network? (include a screen shot(s))

20. Given a choice of two equally strong networks, one being 2.4 GHz and the other being 5 GHz, which one would you connect to? Why?

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