My secure LAN is suddenly not secure

[Muse]

I have a DSL modem. I had encryption configured on my LAN with my Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 wireless router. I thought it was AES encryption. The router has dd-wrt firmware installed. Today, I was having disconnection problems running Cisco Webex (loss of audio) and after around 8 very annoying disconnections (necessitating closing Webex and opening it again, a slow process), I called support for the company that's running the Webex online sessions and the guy went through a checklist of ideas, one of them being to restart the router. I flipped off a power strip (not the best idea). That did shut off the router but it also turned off my server machine, not something I wanted to do. I don't imagine that's related to this problem, though. One of my laptops (this Win7 machine) didn't have a connection and I had problems getting it connected to the Internet again. I checked out my other laptop (XP) and it was connected but it showed that the connection was unencrypted. I've never run this network unencrypted. I managed to get the Windows 7 machine connected again, but it's unencrypted.

Why is my network unencrypted? When I look at the properties for the network on the Windows 7 machine it shows that it will allow me to run it unencryted or with WEP encryption. However, I thought I was running AES encryption. If I choose the WEP encryption option and put in the password that I used for AES, the machine refuses to connect and I have to use the unencrypted configuration to remain connected. What should I do about all this? I'm sorry, I just don't do network stuff much, so I'm kinda clueless here. A few suggestions would help. Thanks.

Edit: I am 100% certain that the router used to be encrypted, there's not doubt about that. For some reason it was running with no encryption yesterday afternoon. It's as if it were reset to defaults, but I never did that, I only unplugged it, that should have reset it, of course.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've had an XP laptop claim that a connection was unencrypted, when I an using WPA-PSK/AES. Not to my main router, but to my secondary router. They are all connected using WDS mode.

Not really sure what that was all about.

 

[Muse]

Finally got encryption enabled again. Holy crap, that was like pulling teeth. Took me around an hour and a half. Gadamn! Why was this necessary? The encrypted connection just plain disappeared and I was connected unencrypted. A guy could go like that indefinitely and never realize it. Nutty. Anyway, it's done, but I have to make notes or this is apt to happen again and I won't know how to fix it. Not sure I could do it readily if it happened in 15 minutes, actually.

The darn router forgot that it was supposed to work encrypted in WPA Personal encryption. Why would it forget? Surely, not because it was suddenly unplugged?!

 

[serpretetsky]

wierd, never heard of such an issue.

 

[imagoon]

Was I the only person that read this and failed to realize he was talking about WLAN? I was like... wow someone took the time to fully IPSEC his wired connections?

On that note, I know that buried in Windows 7 there is a way to make it complain about unencrypted connections, however it has been awhile and I don't recall where.

 

[Muse]

Actually, Win7 did complain, sort of. It didn't connect and when I did get it to connect it was unencrypted. It was my XP laptop that remained connected, and I noticed that it was an unencrypted connection.

I was unaware that I'm running a WLAN. Is that true? Basically, my network is this:

An XP laptop that remains on constantly, has a 2TB HD connected by USB. This laptop is connected by ethernet to my wireless router and it's my server machine, that is it supplies data to the other machines from the 2TB HD.

A Win7 laptop connected wirelessly

An XP laptop connected wirelessly

An XP desktop connected by ethernet to the router

Is this a WLAN? There appeared to be no issues with the ethernet connected machines, just the laptops. I have the router configured again to use WPA Personal encryption and with the same password it was using before (I had to change it from unprotected to protected last night for some unknown reason, it used to be encrypted). The wireless laptops are connected once I entered the password.

 

[imagoon]

WLAN = Wireless LAN.

Wireless has some extra magic down in the Data-Link and Physical layer that is either not present in wired LAN or represented in a higher layer (5 or 6 depending on your preferred model). So while it is true that Wireless is still "LAN", it is commonly shortened to WLAN to make it obvious.

 

[bobdole369]

Finally got encryption enabled again. Holy crap, that was like pulling teeth. Took me around an hour and a half. Gadamn! Why was this necessary? The encrypted connection just plain disappeared and I was connected unencrypted. A guy could go like that indefinitely and never realize it. Nutty. Anyway, it's done, but I have to make notes or this is apt to happen again and I won't know how to fix it. Not sure I could do it readily if it happened in 15 minutes, actually.

The darn router forgot that it was supposed to work encrypted in WPA Personal encryption. Why would it forget? Surely, not because it was suddenly unplugged?!

Point the finger at DD-WRT. I can't tell you why, and likely nobody else can either. All I can tell you is that DD-WRT on my own WHR-HP-G54 did some reaaaaaaly funky stuff regarding DHCP and DNS. Basically I ran out of NVRAM and regular RAM and this caused other options to change around.

Your settings for wifi encryption are stored in nvram, and I've seen on a number of DD-WRT installs - that nvram can clear and you start losing options. I fixed it by moving to another dd-wrt version. Mine is stable now, but the recommended version did not work very well (Using an earlier revision than "current"). So thats probably what did it, as to the why - you may never know - and that your having issues resetting it - maybe you should go back to stock whr-hp-g54? Stock FW is very good for basic/small business use. Is there something in DD-WRT that you are using that stock doesn't do for you?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Point the finger at DD-WRT. I can't tell you why, and likely nobody else can either. All I can tell you is that DD-WRT on my own WHR-HP-G54 did some reaaaaaaly funky stuff regarding DHCP and DNS. Basically I ran out of NVRAM and regular RAM and this caused other options to change around.

Your settings for wifi encryption are stored in nvram, and I've seen on a number of DD-WRT installs - that nvram can clear and you start losing options. I fixed it by moving to another dd-wrt version. Mine is stable now, but the recommended version did not work very well (Using an earlier revision than "current"). So thats probably what did it, as to the why - you may never know - and that your having issues resetting it - maybe you should go back to stock whr-hp-g54? Stock FW is very good for basic/small business use. Is there something in DD-WRT that you are using that stock doesn't do for you?

It is more likely that you used the wrong version of DD-WRT for your device's RAM/NVRAM size. That is why there are several different releases, with different feature sets depending on what your hardware can actually do.

 

[Muse]

Point the finger at DD-WRT. I can't tell you why, and likely nobody else can either. All I can tell you is that DD-WRT on my own WHR-HP-G54 did some reaaaaaaly funky stuff regarding DHCP and DNS. Basically I ran out of NVRAM and regular RAM and this caused other options to change around.

Your settings for wifi encryption are stored in nvram, and I've seen on a number of DD-WRT installs - that nvram can clear and you start losing options. I fixed it by moving to another dd-wrt version. Mine is stable now, but the recommended version did not work very well (Using an earlier revision than "current"). So thats probably what did it, as to the why - you may never know - and that your having issues resetting it - maybe you should go back to stock whr-hp-g54? Stock FW is very good for basic/small business use. Is there something in DD-WRT that you are using that stock doesn't do for you?

Probably not, I don't remember the changes I made, maybe nothing too significant. My main concern is just signal strength because I live in a moderate size house, two stories. I have the router upstairs because I wasn't getting as good results with it downstairs. I may have tweaked a few settings to try to increase the signal strength, I know there are some settings like that. I didn't do much and haven't experimented much with the options. I know it's a techie's firmware, but I don't know much about networking hardware or software. I've always managed to build my computers and have internet, but am not schooled in the issues.

 

[Muse]

It is more likely that you used the wrong version of DD-WRT for your device's RAM/NVRAM size. That is why there are several different releases, with different feature sets depending on what your hardware can actually do.

Thanks, I'll do some searching and see if there's a better version for my router.

WLAN = Wireless LAN.

Wireless has some extra magic down in the Data-Link and Physical layer that is either not present in wired LAN or represented in a higher layer (5 or 6 depending on your preferred model). So while it is true that Wireless is still "LAN", it is commonly shortened to WLAN to make it obvious.

Thanks for this clarification, I just didn't know.

 

[Muse]

Info online says that for my router I want at least this version of dd-wrt:

v24 std (05/24/08) - build 9526

What I have installed on the router is evidently this:

dd-wrt.v23_sp2_standard

I guess I should upgrade the firmware.

Point the finger at DD-WRT. I can't tell you why, and likely nobody else can either. All I can tell you is that DD-WRT on my own WHR-HP-G54 did some reaaaaaaly funky stuff regarding DHCP and DNS. Basically I ran out of NVRAM and regular RAM and this caused other options to change around.

Your settings for wifi encryption are stored in nvram, and I've seen on a number of DD-WRT installs - that nvram can clear and you start losing options. I fixed it by moving to another dd-wrt version. Mine is stable now, but the recommended version did not work very well (Using an earlier revision than "current"). So thats probably what did it, as to the why - you may never know - and that your having issues resetting it - maybe you should go back to stock whr-hp-g54? Stock FW is very good for basic/small business use. Is there something in DD-WRT that you are using that stock doesn't do for you?

So, what version are you using?

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's a pretty old build of DD-WRT.

On my first pair of WNR834Bv2 routers, I was running some 9xxx build. Then on my second pair of same routers, I was using 14982 or something like that.

My current routers, WNR2000v2, I'm using some 16xxx build.

 

[bobdole369]

WHR-HP-G54

DD-WRT v24-sp2 (09/18/10) vpn-small
(SVN revision 15230M NEWD-2 Eko)

 

[Muse]

Not only was I running unencrypted a couple of days ago, the Buffalo router had forgotten my username and password. It was back to using the defaults.

 

[Modelworks]

Sun spots, stray radio wave. It happens more than people realize and is one of the reasons servers use ECC memory. Times when you are computing and an application errors out, you reload it and everything is working fine again and you just shrug it off. Or you go to turn on the tv and it doesn't work and replugging it does work. Some engineers will just say that it got glitched. It is one of those things in electronics where you can't get it to repeat and it happened just the one time for no apparent reason. EEprom and flash is VERY susceptible to stray EMF.

Interestingly enough the last couple days have been really active with sunspot activity.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

 

[krose]

I have the same router with Tomato 1.28 firmware, never had a problem. You might want to try Tomato.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Interestingly enough the last couple days have been really active with sunspot activity.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

Last year, there were some "experts", saying we might have a global catastrophe or two, due to solar maximums and sunspot activity, destroying the power grid.

 

[Modelworks]

Last year, there were some "experts", saying we might have a global catastrophe or two, due to solar maximums and sunspot activity, destroying the power grid.

I don't know that we will have a catastrophe but solar activity is definitely a lot more active lately.

 

[bobdole369]

I don't know that we will have a catastrophe but solar activity is definitely a lot more active lately.

Hey whaddaya know - its the active half of the 11 year solar cycle. Its on the rise - peaking around 2014ish. Ham radio ops are very happy right now.

 

[Muse]

I have the same router with Tomato 1.28 firmware, never had a problem. You might want to try Tomato.

Yeah, I don't think Tomato existed when I bought the router, let's see it was January 1, 2007. If it existed, I hadn't heard of it. I only saw posts of people saying they were flashing theirs to dd-wrt. But I've seen a lot of posts by people saying they really like Tomato, some say they prefer it to dd-wrt.