Securing Your WiFi Network

WiFi is quickly becoming more prevalent in homes and businesses due to improvements in technology that make wireless almost as fast as a traditional wired network.   With this convenience, we lose security.   There are a few basic steps you can take to secure your network before hackers, snoops and the occasional unintentional user connects to your LAN.

The very first thing you should do before anything else is change your router’s password.   Older routers have default passwords set by the manufacturer that everyone knows.   Some do not have passwords at all.   So when you setup your network for the first time, set a router password that is easy to remember and contains a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols.   Write the password down, if necessary, but lock it away in a drawer or other private place.   Since the router is the first line of defense, changing the password is essential.

Next, stop broadcasting your address. Your router will constantly scream to the world and announce its SSID to any wireless device that enters its area.   Disabling SSID broadcast will help block the accidental connection from neighbors and essentially make your wireless network invisible.   You’ll also want to change the default SSID of the router.   For instance, Linksys uses “linksys.”

You’ll also want to enable encryption on the router.   You can use WEP, WPA or WPA2.   The type of encryption you choose really depends on the computers and Internet devices you have in your home or office.   Some older wireless cards simply will not support WPA.   While WEP is considered obsolete and quickly cracked by professional hackers, it is certainly better than running no encryption at all.   If all of your devices support WPA2, then that is what you should use.

The last thing you should do is disable Ad-hoc networking.   Ad-hoc networking is networking from computer to computer without the need to use the router.   This is dangerous, as anyone within close proximity can easily gain access to your PC and its data.   Generally, if you’re behind a LAN using a router, you will already be setup for infrastructure mode, therefore, the ad-hoc isn’t being used.

1. Free Antivirus Programs
2. Rookkits Explained
3. Modify The Hosts File
4. Checking For Spyware
5. Erase Hard Drive
6. Computer Security Tips
7. Phishing Scams
8. Realistic Computer Security Threats
9. Email Worms
10. Secure Passwords Policy
11. The Bittorrent Protocol, How it Works, and Legal Issues
12. The Kerberos Authentication Protocol
13. How to Remove Viruses and Spyware
14. Implementing Kerberos