Posted by SecExtra on May 09th, 2009

Are you always paranoid about your wireless home network and wish that you had the best wireless computer security to protect your data?

It doesn’t have to be too difficult to secure your wireless computer setup and you can set your security from the time that you install the Internet into your home. But if you are the type of person who rushed through the whole setup just to have your Internet connectivity up and running, then you probably will need to do a few of the following things.

Change Your Administrator Password

In most wireless network setups, there is an access point or a router. This is what provides the hotspot that one can access to get onto the Internet and if you are not careful, people can use your Internet stream for free; which isn’t fair because you are paying for Internet usage. Now, these routers are equipment setup from the very start and manufacturers have web pages that will allow you to enter your network address and access your account information.

These web pages are protected by login information, such as usernames and passwords. But these passwords can be easily guessed so that people other than you can access your information. Make sure that you change your username or password on a regular basis. You might want to change the access information at least once a month to avoid hackers from getting into your network address details.

WPA / WEP Encryption

Wireless computer security is quite a touchy issue these days and people can steal bandwidth from open networks (or networks that require no passwords to access them). This is where WPA / WEP encryption can come in handy. All WIFI equipment comes with some kind of encryption like this.

The technology scrambles messages sent over wireless networks so that they can’t be read by regular people. There are all sorts of encryption methods and these WPA / WEP ones are the most common. They can be hacked but it will be difficult for people trying to gain access.

MAC Address Filtering

All WIFI capable hardware has physical addresses. These are known as MAC addresses and can be likened to a house address. Now, if you have a lot of hardware that you use to access your WIFI home network, you should turn on a filtering feature in your server setup. Get the MAC addresses of all your hardware and plug them into your network.

You can then set up your network so that it will only allow your specified MAC addresses and nobody else’s. This is probably the best thing to do especially if you have a network that is easily detected from the outside.
SSID Broadcast

In WIFI networking, there is something known as an SSID Broadcast. This SSID is the name of your router. Once in a while it will broadcast its presence around its immediate area to show that it is available for access. This is a feature that was designed for people who roam in and out of range of WIFI.

This is especially helpful in an office setting where people are moving from one room to the next. But at home, you do not need to have this broadcast since you are the only one using personal WIFI. Make sure to disable this feature in your home network.

These are just some of the things that you can do to protect your personal network and in effect, any personal data that can be accessed by people other than yourself. There are all sorts of ways to make it difficult for people to connect to your WIFI network.

You don’t need to spend too much money on something too sophisticated that you can’t learn it yourself. WIFI technology has many already built-in wireless computer security methods that you can take advantage of now.