How To Secure A Wireless Internet Connection

Wireless connections can provide mobility and ease. But they also happen to be more prone to hacking and vulnerable to data being tampered with.

• You must understand that there is no foolproof method of protecting your connection, however the idea is to make it as hard as possible for people to gain unauthorized access to your data.

• Make sure that your computer’s hardware and software is compatible with the same protocols.

• As soon as you have configured your wireless network, change the default login information along with the service set identifier (SSID) and access points. Remember to disable the SSID broadcast, this will protect your connection from being detected by unwanted visitors whilst at the same time leaving it open for legitimate detection by other means.

• All the equipment you use should at least support WPE data security protocol. WPA and WPA2 are protocols that provide more efficient security. By ensuring that all equipment you use supports the same protocol, you will be able to avoid data security breaches through any device that is using a less secure measure.

• Your routers already have firewalls, but your network can be made even more secure if you use a firewall on all hosts. Also set up the router or access points in a central spot in your residence, this will help to avoid the signal leaking outside the premises and will prevent other unauthorized users access to your connection. In addition, by feeding MAC addresses ( which uniquely identify networking devices) into the router/access points, you can restrict hosts from communicating with one another in the network.

• Use static IP addresses for all hosts in the network. Static addresses are preferable to dynamic addresses (which can be assigned through DHCP), because they are not easy to hack into.

• Other steps you can take to ensure the security of your network include, shutting down all hosts and devices if you do not intend to use them for a long period, restrict devices from connecting automatically to other wireless networks and make sure that the remote administration feature of your router is switched off (if it is left on anyone can have access to it).

• Just be vigilant and take these measures to protect your data from being pried on.