A home wireless network can be incredibly useful and convenient, but it’s a new concept in home networking that needs new security solutions. Check out our guide to Wireless Protection below:
When you set up a wireless network in your house, the broadband signal is sent out from your router – it’s no longer necessary to physically connect to your network, and your network is no longer contained by the walls of your house. While this is really convenient for you, it creates a whole new set of security challenges. But protecting your wireless network is essential if you want to keep your connection private and hacker-free.
Go to My Network Places and scan for your wireless network. In the list that appears, there should be a picture of a padlock next to the name of your network. If there is no padlock, then you need security.
One of the threats to your wireless network is that other users might log on. At best, this means they can use your connection and slow it down, and at worst they can hack into your personal files.
You need a wireless encryption key. This is a series of numbers and letters, working like a password turning data into a code before transmission and making hacking more difficult. The most commonly used methods are:
As well as having an encryption key, there are a few other ways of protecting yourself when you go wireless:
You should also regularly run live updates on windows and your anti-virus to ensure that your security is always up-to-date.
Wireless isolation takes your security to that extra level. It allows you to stop other PCs from detecting your wireless signal. This would hide the name of your signal service set identifier (SSID) meaning that the information on your network would be completely isolated. Wireless isolation is built in to some routers but must be enabled by the user – check your router instructions for details.
Access lists are basically an extra level of security on your network. As well as having to have the password for your network, users would also have to be on the access list. Your router’s instructions will explain how to isolate and filter a MAC address, which is what you need to create an access list.
So now you know how to stay safe and secure while surfing the net and sunbathing, wire-free, in the garden.
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