Getting a wireless network is very simple these days. Many Internet Service Providers (ISP) promote these as the product you should get.

It is really very easy, get the router, run through a handful of commands and you’re done. Congratulations, you are now ready to share your network with your neighbors. Thats right, your network is now probably open to anyone with a laptop or wireless network card.

Steps you can take to secure your network.

  • Change the Admin Password
  • Configure SSID
  • Configure Encryption
  • Disable DHCP
  • Enable known Mac addresses only.

Admin Password

The very first thing you should do is change the admin password on the router. Use a strong password, but sure you won’t forget it. If you have a safe write it down and lock it away. 

Configure SSID

The SSID is your wireless network name. Configure a strong name using a mix of alpha numeric and upper and lower case letters.

Set this to not be visible. If it is not visible it is much harder for other people to find your network.

Configure Encryption

Make sure you configure a form of encryption. Any encryption is better than none.

Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP) is an old protocol that only uses a 64 or 128 bit key. It can be cracked fairly easily.

WPA-Personnel is a new security protocol that is more secure. It is not as widely supported as WEP. If your devices do not support WPA-Personnel then you will need to use WEP.

when using WPA-Personnel always try and use the WPA2 mode. It is better than the standard WPA mode. Again this will be determined by what your devices support.

Disable DHCP

When you have DHCP enabled every computer or device that associates with your router will receive an IP address. This allows it to communicate on your network. if you disable the DHCP functionality others trying to access your network will need to guess your network addresses.

Although this is not particularly hard to do, it will slow them down. If you are creative with your internal IP address scheme they will have trouble.

You can disable the DHCP function in the network settings of the wireless administration control panel. Keep note of the IP address details you need to use first.

Enable only known MAC addresses

By enabling only the known MAC addresses of your devices it will be much harder for any other devices to connect.

You can find your MAC or Physical addresses by doing an IPCONFIG /all. See Setup a basic computer network.

Then go to the advanced section of your Wireless router control panel and enable MAC address Filtering. Note: the names might be different depending on the brand of wireless router you have.

Enter the MAC address and save settings.

Remember

Wireless networking will never be totally secure, but by implementing some or all of these suggestions you will be more secure and prevent your neighbors from looking at your files and leeching your Internet.