| Does your home have a wireless router | | | | this then turn off SSID broadcast. This is a weak |
| connected to your DSL or Broadband cable | | | | security measure and is meant only to stop the |
| connection? Well if it does, and you did not set it | | | | not technical neighbor from stealing your internet. |
| up securely then it is very likely your neighbors or | | | | It will not stop a determined hacker. |
| drive by hackers are using your internet | | | | 3. Turn on MAC address filtering. In the wireless |
| connection! Even worse these same people could | | | | router configuration turn on MAC filtering and |
| be gaining access to the computers connected to | | | | enter the MAC addresses of the wireless cards |
| your network. Wireless networking is very easy | | | | belonging to your PC's and laptops. This will |
| to turn on but a little more difficult to secure | | | | prevent computers that are not on the allowed |
| correctly. A simple look on the internet will show | | | | MAC address list from connecting to your |
| you sites that actually list unsecured wireless | | | | wireless router. |
| connections. I did a search on my home address | | | | 4. Turn on encryption. Depending on your wireless |
| and found 129 open networks within a 1/10 of a | | | | router age and model you will have different |
| mile of my house!! Is yours one of them? There | | | | options for encryption. You may have (WEP), |
| are some simple things you can do to secure | | | | (WPA and WPA2). Any of these encryption |
| your wireless connection. Let me show you how. | | | | methods are better than nothing; however WPA2 |
| 1. Lets start with the simplest thing first. Change | | | | is the most secure of the 3 with WEP being the |
| the default password on the wireless router. | | | | least secure of the three. So choose based on |
| Wireless routers come with a default password | | | | what your router is capable of then the most |
| already set. This password is the same for every | | | | secure if you router is capable of more than one |
| router of that brand and can easily be looked up | | | | type. |
| on the internet by a hacker. So change it to a | | | | Obviously the more checks that are made, the |
| secure password immediately! | | | | greater the likelihood of preventing network |
| 2. Next change the default SSID. The SSID is | | | | break-ins that is why implementing all of these |
| most often set to the name of the manufacturer | | | | instead of just one will be much more secure. |
| so change it to something different. After you do | | | | |