How to Protect your Wi Fi Connection
A Wi-Fi connection may provide the utmost in convenience, but do you know that you may be providing the Internet to many more houses than your own if you do not take the steps to protect yourself? This can hamper your connection speed and propel you into trouble if they use your connection for a nefarious purpose such as spamming or hacking. What’s more, once people are on your network, even the information on your computers may be vulnerable, leaving you susceptible to much more than just a little stolen Internet access. There are various measures that can help to protect your Wi-Fi connection.
• Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
These security measures help to encrypt the information between your computer and wireless routers. When you received your router, chances are the encryption was not active. If you can, use the WPA or the newer WPA2 methods, because the WEP is substantially weaker. You can only use it if all of your equipment supports it. When you make your password, make sure that it is strong. It should not be something that can be easily guessed by others, and do not share it.
• Do not leave the SSID at the default
The service set identifier (SSID) or network name is often set at an easy-to-guess default. Change this so that others cannot easily guess yours. You should also disable SSID broadcast from the access point as this can make it easier for others to find your network. When you do, you will need to enter the SSID on your wireless network adaptors.
• Consider where your wireless router is located
The measures you take to protect your Wi-Fi connection can consist of more than methods on the actual computer. You should also consider where your wireless access point is located. If it is pointed away from windows and closer to the middle of your house, then it may not extend as far out. Some wireless networks are extremely strong, however, and it still may be accessed despite this measure.
• MAC address filtering
A Media Access Control Address or MAC address is a numeric hardware address that is unique to each Ethernet device. You can set up your access point to allow MAC address filtering and specifically add the connection for each computer.
• Let your router do logs
This can allow you to spot the connections and find anything suspicious.
• Protect your computer
In addition to protecting your Wi-Fi connection, you want to protect your computer through firewalls and other measures. You can use IDs and enable passwords on your devices to lower the chances of someone actually doing damage should they go into your network.
Protecting your Wi-Fi connection is extremely important. Take as many precautions as possible to avoid your connection being compromised.
Sources:
• http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf/web/544C7B89A59B6311CA256E7D0017AD37
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/130330/how_to_secure_your_wireless_network.html
• http://www.microsoft.com/protect/data/home/wireless.aspx