How to secure my wireless network?

Answer 1

First, change the default password on your wireless router. Next, turn on encryption. At least use WEP for minimal protection but the best is to use WiFi Protected Access, WPA/WPA2 PSK (Pre Shared Key) mode for home use. WEP can be broken easily by someone who knows how and has the right tools.

Everyone always says "WEP is no good, it's too easy to crack" and I usually say, "Oh, really? Have you done it?" and 99% of the time the answer is no. Because it's NOT that easy for the average home user. I have done it and I like to say that WEP keeps your honest neighbors honest. But it will not hold back someone who has the tools and knowledge to break your key. So use WPA PSK, it's no more difficult to configure than WEP. If you do use WEP (maybe you have an older AP with no WPA support) then at least change your WEP key occasionally.

Also consider using MAC address filtering, so you can decide ahead of time which machines are allowed on your network. You do an "ipconfig /all" for example on one of your PCs to get the MAC/Hardware address, and then put the MAC address into your router's MAC list. Again, there are ways to defeat this with MAC spoofing, etc, but not without some effort and not likely with your average users/neighbors.

Also use other security features built into your product like stateful packet inspection (SPI) firewalls, etc. Check the manual or just click thru the config screens to see what's there.

Finally, don't let anyone fool you into thinking that turning off SSID broadcast will make you network secure, it will not. That only supresses the SSID in the beacon messages and is not meant to be a security feature, it's more to prevent accidental associations. Still, it is a "best/common practice" to change your SSID to something other than the default and turn off SSID broadcast.

So in summary:
1. Change default password on router
2. Configure WPA PSK
3. Use MAC address filtering
4. Change SSID from default and do not broadcast it
5. Disable any type of remote administration
6. Enable any built-in firewall features
7. Block unknown external (WAN) requests
8. Read the manual for your product for other security features.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Turn on WEP or WPA. Turn off your SSID broadcasting. Turn on MAC address filtering.

See your router's manual to see how to do these things.