On Securing Your Wireless Network

I was alarmed when I recently read that most people do not secure their wireless network at home. The entire process of securing your wireless network can actually take you twenty minutes max and yet, people are not doing it. I wonder why that is so. It's not a very complicated process, you know.

One of the many reasons why you should secure your wireless network is because you want to prevent unauthorized access to your network, and ultimately, into your computer. Anyone who decides to tap on your wireless network can spread malicious programs over your network and worse, they can get access inside your computer, thus making your personal information prone to identity theft. Not securing your wireless network is a very bad practice.

Enough about the sermon, now let's get on to securing your wireless network. Remember that it is imperative to secure your wireless network even if you are only using your wireless connection at home, or even if you rarely use it.

The first thing that you can do is to change the default administrator user name and password on your router. By default, the user name would be "admin" and the password would be either "password" or "admin." If a computer hacker will get inside your network, they will have the ability to access this configuration page and change the user name and password. By then, you will not be able to make any changes in your router unless you have it reset.

After changing the user name and password for your configuration page, you also need to change your default SSID. Your router's SSID is like its name. When you open your wireless enabled laptop, it will detect any wireless network in range. The SSID of the networks that it detected will be reflected on that list. If you use the default name and your router is the same brand as your neighbor's, then there will always be a possibility that your neighbor will connect to your network instead of theirs. You also have to disable your wireless broadcasting so that if any sniffer (hacker who "sniffs" wireless networks) is around, they will not be able to detect and tap to your network.

Enable WEP/WPA Encryption so that only authorized computers will be able to connect to your wireless network. WEP passwords typically contain 10 characters. You can only use the letters a-f and the numbers 0-9. Whenever possible, stay away from using your birth date and telephone number as your passwords because they are very easy to guess. Remember, identity theft criminals are now closely working together with computer hackers so they should not be able to crack your password so you can protect yourself against these criminals.

If you haven't updated the firmware for your router, this is probably the best time to do so. Do not disable your router's firewall because this adds an additional security feature to protect yourself against intruder attacks. Lastly, turn off your router when you are not using them. They need to rest as well, just like you do.

Tina L. Douglas is a skilled writer from California. With numerous experiences in the field of writing for several financial institutions, she is greatly qualified across a variety of economic issues. Her notable pieces of writing involve identity theft.