On the resulting screen, you should see an area where you can set the Security Mode, with options like WEP, WPA, WPA2, and others listed. Click on the Wireless tab or Wireless Security tab. Once logged into the router, you’ll see a number of tabs or links to various control panels. To prevent unwanted users from accessing your wireless network, be sure to enable some sort of Wi-Fi security.
Once the router has completely booted up, follow the steps outlined earlier to renew your system’s IP address. Wait a few moments for the modem to renegotiate its connection to the Internet and establish a solid link then plug in the router. Next, reconnect the modem’s power cable to restore its power. Don’t just press the power buttons–that can occasionally put modems or routers into standby mode rather than totally killing the power. To reset your broadband modem and router, disconnect their power cables and leave the modem and router off for 30 seconds. The same trick also occasionally works for the connection between a router and a broadband modem.
Your broadband modem’s connection to the Internet will occasionally become unreliable, and restarting it can fix that. Restarting a Windows 7 system will also flush its DNS cache, but if any applications (malware, perhaps) are altering the cache, flushing manually could help. Flushing a system’s DNS cache will wipe out any stored Domain Name Service data.
