How to secure wireless network

How to secure wireless network

Your Wireless signal travel through walls and does not stop in the premise of your own house. Basically someone can compromise your Network through a simple antenna or software. Indeed, like what you said, it could be disastrous if it happens.

There are many possible ways of securing your Wireless Network and it is advisable that you utilize them as much as possible, rather than just enabling wireless password protection in it.

Here are the lists of the basic and advance options in securing your wireless network:

Take note that these steps need to be done on the GUI(Graphical User Interface) of your router where you can see and change its settings. Each router's GUI looks different depending on the brand, firmware version and model. Also please take note that not all of these security options are available on all kinds of router. The GUI can be accessed through putting in the default gateway of your router in a browser's address bar.

For more information in accessing the GUI and setting up these security settings, please contact your ISP or the manufacturer of your router.

>Wireless Password Protection.
The most basic type of protection you can have for your wireless connection is through putting a password in it. This is done by enabling the Wireless network security of your router in its GUI page. Make sure to use the WPA(Wi-Fi Protected Access) type of encryption because it uses a more advance technology in protecting your network, rather than the default WEP(Wired Equivalent Privacy) that runs through weak static keys.

>Set-up an Administrator or System password for your wireless router.
Your Router's GUI is like your vault that needs to be protected because your router's settings can be found in it. Usually usernames like 'admin' which is also the password is set on your router by default. So you should make sure that you restrict access to it by making a personalized username and password.

>Personalize or Hide your SSID(Service Set Identifier) or Network name.
If someone in your area searches for wireless networks to connect to and is within your router's wireless range; your SSID would come up on their wireless client list. So basically, your SSID is the name of your router's wireless signal broadcasted around your neighborhood. Given this, make sure that you personalize your router from its default SSID(e.g., West110, 2wire123 and linksys) which usually spoils what type of router you have and bear in mind that such information can still be used to access your network illegally.

Another deeper way to protect unauthorized access in your network is to hide your SSID. This means that your network name won't just be casually detected by your neighbor's wireless scanning feature. Given this, you should manually connect to the network. That could be done by providing the exact SSID(case-sensitive), wireless password and type of authentication of your router in your device's wireless client.

>Limiting the Router's broadcast strength.
 Some routers have advance settings to lessen the broadcast strength of the wireless signal so that it lowers its range and you can avoid it from going further away from your premise.

Another option would be to decrease the router's power setting so that it lessens the output power of the radio in the router that is emitting the signal, thus it reduces the range as well.

>Limiting the IP(Internet Protocol) Address that can connect to your router.
In your network, your router assigns IP addresses to each device's network adapter connected to it so that they can communicate with each other. The assignment process is done using the DHCP(Dynamic Host Control Protocol). Through accessing the GUI then limiting the range of your DHCP, you will be able to control the number of devices to connect to your network.

>MAC(Media Access Control) address Filtering.
The MAC address is basically your device's(e.g., computer, smart phone, gaming system, etc.) Unique ID for network interfaces. Given this, you can have your router to choose which 12-character MAC address can connect to it by putting it in the 'allowed list' in your GUI, otherwise it gets rejected. This is a very effective way of securing your network, but it is also time consuming, especially if you have a lot of wireless devices to connect.