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Wireless Home Network Security

Wireless Network Security

With the rising popularity of wireless home networks, many people do not realize how simple it is for a hacker to intercept your information. An insecure wireless network may leave you vulnerable to crimes like identity theft.

Your wireless router, if not set up correctly, will broadcast an open signal right through the walls and windows of your home or office. With this in mind, it is vital to ensure that your wireless home network is secure.

Take these simple steps to make securing wireless networks easy.

Changing Your Wireless Hardware's Default Password

Many of the wireless routers are factory set to use a default password, "admin" for instance. Be sure to reset the password so to something less obvious, and something that you will remember.

Changing Your Wireless Network SSID

The SSID (service set identifier) is a unique name assigned to a wireless network. The majority of wireless internet equipment comes with a factory-default SSID that is easily found on the Internet. In order to secure a wireless network It is vital that you reset the default SSID, and turn off its broadcast, which can be easily intercepted.

Leaving the default SSID means that you run the risk of allowing a hacker to access your wireless network as well as the contents of your hard drive. A hacker with this type of access to your wireless home network can see anything on your computer that you can.

Be Sure To WEP (Wired Equivalency Privacy)

The next step in creating a secure wireless network for your home or office is activating WEP, which is a type of encryption for wireless networks. WEP is not 100% protection, as newer protocols being introduced. However, much of the older wireless hardware do not support the new protocols.

It is also a good idea to implement a firewall in both your wired and wireless home network.

Setting The MAC Address

The MAC (Media Access Control) address is the unique identification number assigned to networking and computer hardware.

When you begin to set up your home network for wireless connectivity, you can set the wireless router or wireless access point to only accept connections from specified MAC addresses. This ensures that only computers that you have specified will be granted access to your network.

Switch Off DHCP

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) allows computers on a network to be automatically configured by the DHCP server. The server usually assigns an IP address to computers when accessing the internet.

When DHCP is turned off, the computer is required to use a static IP or a specified range of IP addresses, limiting access to the wireless network to these specific IP addresses.

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