Make your Wireless Network Secure

You wouldn’t leave your front door unlocked. So why leave your home wireless network just as vulnerable? This chart shows default settings for 5 popular wireless routers. Unless you change your settings, this is all anyone would need to take over your wireless network.

Fortunately, there are several easy things to make your wireless network more secure. All these examples use the Linksys wireless WRT54G router as an example. You’ll need a computer connected to the wireless network, or even better, connected with a network cable (cat 5).

Change the Default IP address

There are several reasons to change the default IP address such as avoiding IP conflicts. From a security standpoint, it’s important to change the default IP address to make it more difficult to access the router setup page.

• Open a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox
• Put in the default IP address (192.168.1.1 for a Linksys router)
• Enter the user name and password
• Select “Setup” and then “Basic Setup”
• Change the “Local IP Address”
• Click “Save Settings” and your done

What if you forget the IP address? The back of the router has a reset button. Press and hold the button for 30 seconds. This will reset everything back to factory defaults including the default IP address.

Changing the Default Password

After changing the IP address, you should also change the default password. Obviously, this will help make your network more secure.

• Open a web browser
• Put in the router IP address
• Enter the user name and password. Here are the defaults.
  • user name: leave blank
  • password: admin
• Select “Administration” and then “Management”
• Enter the new password and re-enter to confirm
• Click “Save Settings” to finish

A quick note about selecting a password. Password length is less important than complexity. An 8 character password is fine but make sure to use some numbers and special characters. Most passwords don’t use the full range of characters making them easier to crack.

Change the Wireless Network Name (SSID)

When you purchase a wireless router, it has a default SSID. And, the SSID is identical for all similar products. Changing the SSID won’t really make your network more secure but it lets people know you’ve taken measures to secure your network and aren’t an easy target.

• Open a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox
• Put in the router IP address
• Enter the user name and password
• Select “Wireless” and then “Basic Wireless Settings”
• Enter a new wireless network name (SSID)
• Click “Save Settings” to finish

To take it one step further, disable the wireless SSID broadcast. This will prevent others from detecting your wireless network name, when they view available networks.

Enable MAC Filtering

Another way to prevent others from connecting to your network is enabling MAC filtering. Each wireless device has a MAC address. You can setup a list to only allow (or only prevent) specific devices to connect based on the MAC address.

• Open a web browser
• Put in the router IP address
• Enter the user name and password
• Select “Wireless” and then “Wireless MAC Filter”
• Click “Enable” and “Prevent” or “Permit only”
• Click “Edit MAC Filter List” and enter the information (i.e. 00-13-21-6C-B3-24). You can also click “Wireless Client MAC list” to see a list of current devices connected.
• Click “Save Settings” to finish

Enabling this feature will keep your neighbors off your network, but a skilled hacker can fake a MAC address to get around this.

Enable WPA Encryption

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a dynamic security encryption. It’s stronger than WEP because it changes based on time renewal and has a more advanced encryption method.

• Open a web browser
• Put in the router IP address
• Enter the user name and password
• Select “Wireless” and then “Wireless Security”
• Select “WPA Personal” from the Security Mode drop down menu
• Chose “TKIP” (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) for the WPA Algorithm
• Enter a WPA Shared Key. This key will be required for any device to connect to your network
• Leave Key Renewal at 3600 seconds. Click “Save Settings” to finish

What do you think? Is your network secure?

by: Ethan | October 10, 2008 | filed in: Online Community
Related Tags: configuration, IP, name, password, secure, security, settings, setup, user, wireless

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