5 IDEAS TO Keep Hackers From Connecting To Your Wireless Home Network and Stealing Your Identity

Drive along any neighborhood with a Laptop and wireless network card and chances are very good there’s an unprotected wireless network waiting for one to connect. Imagine printer connection cable or your neighbor who has been using your connection and possibly capturing all data being transmitted on the Network. Your Email, Bank and CHARGE CARD account information vulnerable and out in the open for anybody to steal.

If this appears like your home wireless network, it’s time you put security set up and lock out unwanted guest. Beyond the oblivious security measures, changing and disabling SSID broadcast, turning off your wireless router you should definitely is use, these 5 tips will secure a house wireless network in layers, and give the boot to even the most seasoned professional.

Tip #1 – Do not use DHCP – Using DHCP is quite convenient, especially for intruders. DHCP automatically hands out IP addresses to any who successfully connects to your Network. When disabled, every computer or device must be manually assigned an Ip. All computers, printers and devices on your network will need to be manually configured with static IP addresses. The threat of just offering access is eliminated and you also gain more control over who is able to hook up to the network.

Also consider changing the router local Ip to something other than 192.168.1.1 that a lot of wireless routers are configured automagically. Use an address of 10.0.0.x for the router and for assigning IP addresses to devices on your network. Changes to the defaults set by the router manufacture can help keep intruders guessing and keep them off the network.

Tip #2 – Change The Router Default Password – While this might seems like the most logical task when establishing a wireless router, lots of people ignore changing the password. You will be surprised how many people think just using encryption on the wireless network will prevent someone from gaining access to your router.

With router vendors using well known default passwords such as admin for Linksys, Dlink and Netgear, encryption will not stop intruder access to the administration interface and gaining usage of a lot more than just your Network.
Best practice would be to change your password utilizing a complex password. If your name is Joseph, you can actually mix alpha, numeric, and special characters to generate a password you won’t ever forget such as J0s3ph!r0ut3r*

Tip #3 – Implement The Strongest TYPE OF Encryption – This may potentially be the weak point of your Network, since wireless signals transmit on the airways. A hacker doesn’t need to be connected to the Network to steal data. Utilize the highest encryption available. such as for example WPA-Personal or WPA2 with a long pass phrase blended with alpha,
numeric and special characters. Ignore anyone who advises you to at the very least use WEP, which is a very weak form of encryption.

WEP (wireless encryption protocol) is probably the earliest type of encryption and the easiest to break. You will end up at risk by not upgrading to an improved wireless router, that offers newer encryption technology. If you run a home business, or use online banking, there is absolutely no excuse to protect your self by making a small investment for security.

Tip #4 Enable MAC Filtering: A MAC (Media Access Control) address is really a unique identifier, much like fingerprints for folks. MAC’s are assigned through the manufacturing of a network device, like a network card or Wireless adapter. Enabling MAC Filter lets you control which wireless-equipped Computers may or may not talk to the Router based on their MAC addresses and not allow any Computers which have not been put into the list.