5 Steps to a
secure network
How
do I secure my wireless network? This is probably the question we get asked
the most . Wireless (or wi-fi, they are the same thing) networks and routers
are shrouded in mystery and fill many owners with fear. What are all these
settings? What the heck is WPA-PSK and WEP?
Follow
these steps, and you can browse the internet and buy things online without
fear. How can we say this so confidently?
All of
these things do, in fact, require that you log in to your wireless router
administrative control panel. This is usually done by opening a browser and
going to http://192.168.1.1 (for
most Linksys routers) or http://192.168.0.1(for most D-Link routers).
Check the user manual or quick-start guide that came with your router if either
of those do not work. Since we can't provide a how-to for every wireless router
on the market, we will not be going into specifics of where to find each of
these settings. That said, most wireless routers should have these settings
under a tab or menu titled "Wireless Security" or something similar.
1) Change the SSID name.
The SSID
is the name of your network. That is, it's how other computers know what to
look for when connecting to your wireless network. Linksys wireless routers use
"linksys" as their default name. D-Link uses, get ready,
"dlink" as their default. Changing this to a unique name, but not
something related to a personal password or anything personally identifiable.
You can have fun with this. We've seen wireless networks named things like,
"computer-virus" and the like to scare people off. Choose whatever
makes you happy.
2) Disable SSID broadcast.
By
default, almost all wireless routers broadcast the SSID name you setup above.
This means that anyone within range of your router (neighbors, random strangers
driving by, criminals, highly-evolved birds of prey, etc.) can find out the
name of your network and thus try to connect to it. Make it a bit harder on
folks by disabling this broadcast feature. Combined with the unique name above,
these two steps will certainly ward off the casual wi-fi poacher.
3) Enable WPA or WPA2
encryption.
We
probably should have put this first, because it is the most effective and most
important part of securing your wi-fi network as well as the information you
send across it. The benefits here are two-fold:
1.It makes access to
your wireless network password-protected.
2.It encrypts all the
data you send while browsing the internet (credit card numbers, email
passwords, etc.).
You'll
want to use WPA2 if your wireless router gives you that option and your
computer supports it. If it does not, go with WPA. Do not even bother with WEP
encryption, as this has been proven to be hackable in minutes and really only
offers a false sense of security. You will be required to enter a password, or
"shared key," when setting this up. For this, you'll want to pick a
long string of both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers. Stick
with a string of ten characters or more to be safe, although some security
experts suggest going with something over twenty characters. Keep in mind that
you might have to give this out to trusted visitors and weekend guests, so
don't make this the same as any other password you use.
4) Change the Control
Panel Administrator password.
The
Control Panel of your router is where you will be making all these changes, so
it makes sense to properly secure this area. Most wireless routers come with a
blank or unset Administrator password by default. If you didn't enter a
password to change the settings in steps 1-3, this is you. Some, like many
Linksys wireless routers, use the word "admin" as the default
password. Either way, you should change this to something only you know and
never give this out to anyone.
5) Disable web access to
the Control Panel.
This has
probably caused some confusion for many of you, but it just requires a bit of
explanation. What disabling this does is require that anyone accessing the
Control Panel of your wireless router already be connected to your wireless
network. So, this means that any access from the outside world (aka, the
internet) will not be allowed to even try to gain access to your router to mess
with its settings.
Some
wireless routers even allow you to disable access from computers connected to
your network wirelessly. That is, you have to physically connect a cable to the
wireless router to be able to change the settings being discussed here. If your
wireless router is always connected via a cable to a desktop computer or is
otherwise easily accessible for you, we would recommend enabling this setting.
The fact is, once you set up all this stuff you rarely have to access the
Control Panel anyway, so this just makes it all the more secure.Get Protected Now!
One thing to not bother
with: MAC address filtering
One
setting you'll find many people recommend to secure wireless networks is to
enable something called "MAC address filtering." In short, this does
more harm than good, and is more of a hassle than anything else. Allow us to
explain:
Every
computer has a unique ID that identifies it on a network, which is called a MAC
address. (Note, this has nothing to do with the computers made by Apple, Inc.
Those are Macs - notice the capitalization difference.) With MAC address
filtering, you can tell your wireless network to only allow access from certain
computers by inputting their MAC address into the router settings. However,
from a hacker's point of view, what this does is give them a list of MAC
addresses that can access the network and gives them one more piece of
information to help them snoop around on your network.
From a
pactical point of view, enabling this feature makes giving access to friends
and house guests a big pain in the butt, since you have to both find out their
MAC
address and manually enter it into your network settings. And by the way, MAC addresses are not short numbers. Here's what a MAC address looks like: 08:00:69:02:01:FC Fun, huh?
VOIP
(Voice Over Internet Protocol) is the new way to make and receive phone calls. This will digitize your voice and zips it through your high-speed Internet
connection.Digi-Phone works with corded or cordless Phone's.You can make call's to anyone in the world.The person on the other side does not need to have a digi-phone or voip.There are many voip provides,you would need to do some research to see if they are a provider for 911 service,but if you can get voip or digital phone thru your local provider that would be great to.Here is a website to check out to help with your decision. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/voip911.html
