Secure Your Wireless Network

You would be pretty surprised to know how many people set up a broadband connection, get a nice wireless router for it and then proceed to broadcast their connection for all within range to see and indeed use. All the more worrying is that if you use it as a network hub, then you can give people access to shared folders on your PC. So many people do this in fact that there is a hobby grown up around it called wardriving, where techies drive around with a wireless enabled laptop and use a piece of software, often NetStumbler, to see how many insecure wireless networks they can find.

The reason is that setting up the security on a router is still not easy. Windows XP SP2 does make it easier and if you install the service pack then we recommend that you try using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard to configure your network, especially if you are beginner. However, there are many occasions when this isn’t appropriate, like when you already have one PC set up on the network and want to add another, or when you want to set the security features to your own liking. To do this, you need to understand the basic forms of security that all wireless routers offer.

Unique SSID

Firstly, a router can be given a unique name, and will probably have one set up as a factory default. This is called the SSID. Some routers can be set to only allow computers that know the exact SSID to connect, so that you can set the SSID on your PC and then your PC and router will work happily, but anyone who comes along without the SSID won’t be able to see the router.

Strong Security

Secondly, there is a wireless encryption standard known as WEP. This uses an alphanumeric key (letters and numbers) as a password. You enter the key into the router and into any PCs that log on to the network. To create these, you should really enter a random combination of numbers and letters; don’t use a password.

Trusted Computer Only

Lastly, there is the ability to tell the router to only allow access to computers that it recognises. It recognises them via their MAC address, which is a 12 digit hexadecimal code that is unique to your PC. Confusingly, MAC addresses have nothing to do with Apple Macs and both PCs and Macs have MAC addresses. You can find your address and enter it into your router and then set it to only allow these trusted PCs.

You have to use all three methods to better secure your wireless network.

More posting about wireless security : Protecting Wireless Network. I also will show you how to properly secure your wireless router in the coming articles. Do come back to visit Your Guide to Wi-Fi more often.