What is "Wi-Fi Protected Setup"?

Question

So I bought this new router, and one of my computer can connect to this router, but my other one, can't. I tried alot of stuff, and realize that disabling "Wi-Fi Protected Setup", everything would work fine.

But I don't quite get what this "Wi-Fi Protected Setup" means, and if I disable it, will I be expose to big danger?

This is just like inside my router's configuration:

http://www.support.dlink.com/emulators/dir625_revC/Protected_Setup.html

Answer 1

The idea behind Wi-Fi protected setup is to make securing your wireless router and related wireless connections EASIER.

There's a button on side of the router that may or may not be labeled.  On my D-Link Dir-655 the button had a sticker that indicated "reserved" .

This button on my router allows me to press it and "open" a virtual door temporarily to allow another wireless device to securely exchange the WEP, WPA or WPA2 keys automatically.   I find it's much simpler to me to do it the old fashioned way.  Once you have the WPA or WPA2 key on all of the systems that will use wireless access you should be able to Enable the protected setup on the router to add an extra bit of security.

Disabling the Wi-Fi protected setup will not leave you exposed if you are following other safe practices.

1) Disable the SSID broadcast.

2) Add the MAC address of each device to the MAC address table on the router, then set router to ONLY ALLOW the MAC addresses in the table.

3) Set the DHCP section to the actual number of IP addresses you use.

4) Enable WPA2 if at all possible.  WPA if you can't use WPA2.  If you can't use WPA do NOT bother with WEP.  WEP can be circumvented in 5 minutes or less by anyone that is reasonably savvy.

5) Disable remote administration.   This requires that the router be administered locally using Ethernet connected computer.

6) Change the Admin password and the default SSID of your router as soon as possible.  These both scream to the world "I want my network to be used and abused by anyone and everyone"

Good luck and I hope this helps.  

For more specifics on how to perform any of the above recommendations read YOUR router's manual.