Do you use a wireless network at home to connect to the internet? Do you know whether or not others are connecting to your wireless network without your knowledge? You must protect your wireless network from unauthorized users logging on to the internet through your wireless router. There are multiple ways in which to do this and by following a few simple rules, you can also be comfortable in the fact that your internet connection is safe.
Why should you secure your wireless router?
One of the biggest reasons to secure your wireless router is so that you know exactly who is able to connect to your internet connection and your network. Do you bank online? If a hacker can get his cyber-foot in the door through your wireless router, he can then infect any computer system on your network and steal information such as credit card numbers and online banking usernames and passwords.
Let's say that you do not bank online and don't use your computer for anything other than surfing the internet. If anyone can connect to the wireless router and gain internet access, they can look at and access just about anything. If this person is doing something illegal, the FBI will be knocking on your door and not theirs because the illegal activity came from your specific internet connection.
What can you do to protect your wireless network?
The very first thing that you should do is to enable the encryption over your wireless connection. Currently there are 2 standards of encryption. These are WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) or WPA (Wifi Protected Access). WEP is a weaker encryption and for the experienced hacker is easily broken. However if your wireless router does not support WPA (common in older wireless routers), WEP will keep you safe from the casual computer user leeching off of your internet access. You should check the manual for your specific router for instructions on how to do this. They can almost always be found on the manufacturer's website.
Another option that you can use is to enable MAC filtering. A MAC address is like a serial number hard coded into all network devices. When MAC filtering is enabled it only allows the mac addresses of specific devices to connect to your router. Short of someone gaining physical access to the router it is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to connect to your wireless router with this option enabled and configured.
Jake Smith is a Network Analyst for a financial institution. He currently holds 3 associates degrees in Web Design, Network/Information Security, and Network Support. He has over 5 years of professional experience working with computers and networking equipment. He is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Arts and Applied Sciences in Business Administration. For more information on securing your home and business computers please visit http://www.it-secured.com
