These are the top ten ways to improve the security of your home wireless network. Login screens protect these web tools by prompting for a username and password so that only authorized people can make administrative changes to the network. However, router manufacturers’ default logins are simple and well-known to hackers on the internet. Change these settings immediately. Choose the best form of encryption that’s compatible with your wireless network. The way these technologies work, all Wi-Fi devices on a network must share matching encryption settings. Knowing the SSID does not allow your neighbors to break into your network, but it is a start. More importantly, when someone sees a default SSID, they view it as a poorly configured network that’s inviting attack. Change the default SSID immediately when setting up wireless security on your network. Doing this adds another level of protection to a home network, but the feature is not so powerful as it may seem. Hackers and their software programs can fake MAC addresses easily. Inside a home, this broadcast feature is unnecessary, and it increases the likelihood that someone will try to log in to your home network. Fortunately, most Wi-Fi routers allow the network administrator to disable the SSID broadcast feature. When installing a wireless home network, the location and physical orientation of the access point or router determine its reach. Position these devices near the center of the home rather than near windows to minimize leakage. Having too many layers of security applications is overkill. Having an unprotected device (particularly a mobile device) with critical data is even worse. Turn off DHCP on the router or access point, set a fixed private IP address range instead, then configure each connected device with an address within that range. If you own a wireless router but are only using it for wired (Ethernet) connections, you can sometimes turn off Wi-Fi on a broadband router without powering down the entire network.
