Warning, a little background knowledge is needed.. not much though ^-^

There is a way that you can use remote access to your wireless router... in fact your whole home network for free with no software downloading or anything. Quite a few wireless routers I've come across (h**ked) can be configured for remote access, you just set the password and the port for the remote access. To get to the router, you would type in it's local address. There should be a load of settings for you to manipulate, although the router will be password protected. you can find the default password and username for the router in the manual you got with it. They username is usually "admin" and the password is either "password" or "1234" etc.

Right. So you're logged in to your router, check some of the settings, snoop around and learn the feel of it. You will find settings either labled "Remote Access" or "Network Options" etc. Go for these. Then, modify the setting so it's enabled and enter a password and username (if the username is required) For instance, say I chose port 65, and a password of... "laurencetelesia" (For the dumb and ignorant, no quote-marks in the actual password. This may seem like overkill, but seriously, some people these days.).
From a different computer (location, country if you wish) I would enter the external IP address of the network with the port after a colon. eg. I would enter in the address bar of my web browser: (again with the quotes thing) "http://86.80.32.135:65"

After doing all this I would likely get a prompt to enter your password, which in this case is (quotes thing again) "laurencetelesia" (don't ask why that's the password I chose). After entering the password, everything should be fine and dandy. You should be able to access printers from here and generally mess around with the router's settings... not that you would do that to your own router. 'Cos that's the only router you would remotely access

Have fun. Stay safe. And there's usually an option to reset all settings



EDIT(for the very special TeeCee06):

What you can do with this apart from doing things to your printer remotely is that you can access your whole home network and configure your wireless router. Say for instance you're at a friends house and your wireless router is left home on so say... you siblings or parents or whatever can use it. If you had the MAC addresses (permanent, unchangeable) of the computers using the network, you could take a look at the MAC addresses f the computers using the wireless router from your friends house. Also, you can configure your whole router from anywhere in the world... You could print a digital photo of you in Australia on your home printer in America while you're in Australia. Just think of the possibilities... As I said, there is some background/technical knowledge needed.

This post has been edited by keri-j: Nov 21 2006, 02:53 AM

What all can you do by following this tutorial other than hook up a printer?

This is definitely good to know. My router (as most others) is always at the internal IP address of 192.168.1.1, and has DHCP functionality so that the last octet (192.168.1.xxx) of the rest of the internal IP's on my network are automatically assigned as they are added. So all I do to keep updated on all the devices on my network is check the DHCP table in my router UI from time to time.

Also, there are some important security measures done through the UI that need to be taken, at least initially. You'll want a security protocol enabled, such as WEP (this requires an encrypted password from the machine trying to gain access). Also, routers can have "MAC Address Filtering", which helps too. You can limit machines access to your network by their MAC address, kind of like an invitation-only party. It's not infallible, but its a start. Read up on you're routers documentation for more security options.

I think remote access is default not turned on on most routers.
And if it is , mostly your IP adress changes each team you (re) connect to the internet.

So this problem is not that big.

The biggest problem is that people buy a wireless router , connect it and notice that it works.
They leave everything default and think they are secure.

Everyone (mosly neigbours) can access their network on the wireless side.
And even do some configurations in their router.

So the best is 'disable' the wireless access if you don't need it.
Otherwise :

Change the channel ID, SSID.
Turnoff the broadcast of the SSID.
Implement a MAC filter.
Implement an encryption (like WEP, ... )

Be aware when your wireless connected first to change the router and then your PC.
Cross your fingers that you can connect again ....

And if you can't connect again just use the blue cable to connect your PC to the WiFi router.