10 Steps to Maximize your Home Wireless Network Security
2. Choose a strong and unique password for your wireless network
Your wireless router comes pre-set with a default pass- word. The problem is that this default password is easy to guess by hackers, especially is they know the manu- facturer’s name for the router. See step 1 above.
When setting a good password for your wireless network, make sure it is at least 20 characters long and includes numbers, letters and various symbols.
This setting will prevent other people from accessing your network. Though usually, it is nothing more serious than some neighbor “stealing” from your network band- width speed, you may have to deal with other more chal- lenging situations, like online criminals that can access your network to “listen” to your traffic data and retrieve sensitive information.
Increase your security by enabling network encryption There are a few popular encryption options for wireless networks, like WEP,WPA and WPA2. The latter form of encryption – WPA2 – is preferred for its improved securi- ty and especially if you have a home network.
The option to encrypt traffic is useful if you need to make
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rized third party software.
At this moment all wireless devices out there support this technology and it is common knowledge to use WPA2, which has a greater degree of security.
Disable the wireless network when you’re not at home This option is useful especially when leaving home for extended periods of time, for a vacation or for a few days.
This security measure, besides helping you to reduce power consumption, it will surely stop any hackers that could “listen” to your network’s traffic or might try to access it for malicious purposes.
Where in hour home did you set up your router?
It could be a good idea to place the wireless router as close as possible to the middle of your house. And it’s not just for every place or room in the house to have same access to the Internet, but because you don’t want to have your wireless signal range reach too much out- side your house, where it can be easily received by hack- ers.
For this reason, don’t place it too close to a window, from where the signal can be easily accessed from outside, 4.
5.
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even at some distance, and you may also follow our fourth rule to disable the router when leaving your home.
Choose a strong password for your network administrator To set up your wireless router, usually you need to access an online platform or web page, where you can make
modifications to your network settings.
As everybody knows, it is something normal to find a router with default credentials such as “admin” and
“password”. And these default login credentials are not so difficult to break by a hacker.
Most changes we do on an online platform are things like setting a strong password for the wireless network or changing the network’s name, both changes being made to ensure a greater level of protection from online crimi- nals’ malicious actions.
But if an IT criminal is able to access the administrator platform and gain access to your network’s setup and configuration settings, this will ruin your day for sure.
Disable Remote Access
Normally, you can access your router’s interface from a
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allow access even from remote systems. To stop online hackers access to your router’s private settings, it is safe to disable this option in your router’s settings.
To make this change, access the web interface and search for “Remote access” or “Remote Administration“. Keep your router’s software up-to-date
Consider your router’s software like any other software you have on your operating system. It may be your antivi- rus program or any other application running on the
system. The router’s firmware, like any other software, contains flaws which can become major vulnerabilities, unless they are quickly fixed by firmware releases from the manufacturer.
The problem is that most routers don’t have the option to install the latest security updates and from time to time you need to check the official website for security fixes.
We must not forget that some of the worst security breaches came from security holes in unpatched pro- grams and operating systems.
Make sure you have a good firewall
Some routers have their own firewalls that can help block
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hackers from accessing your computer.
In case your router doesn’t have such a firewall, make sure you install a good firewall solution on your system to watch for malicious access attempts to your wireless network.
These days, most people use the firewall solution provid- ed by their operating systems, which is a good option. In case you are using a security software that contains a firewall, it is a good option to turn it on.
Protect the devices that connect most frequently to your wireless network
Don’t leave any door open for online criminals!
Though you may have secured your router and your wire- less network, you need to make sure you are not leaving any security breach that can be exploited by IT criminals.
Therefore, follow some general and common sense guidelines to stay away from online dangers, like having the latest software available installed on the system and the latest security patches downloaded to ensure no se- curity hole or breach is left open to online predators.
Even more, check what devices connect mostly to your
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ware installed against the viruses and spyware.
And finally, use a specialized security software to protect your devices from financial and data stealing malware, cybercriminals and malicious hacker servers.
Wi-Fi networks symbolize the power of Internet, its free- dom to spread knowledge and information everywhere and at almost no cost.
At the same time, these networks are not the most secure places on Internet and cybercriminal minds are lurking everywhere.
To continue using a public or a home network, you need to make sure you followed some of the steps above.
I tried to be thorough in this lesson and cover both public and home Wi-Fi networks.
This way, you have all the security steps to stay safe on wireless networks and you can always return to this
guide when necessary to increase your online protection.
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