Following some basic steps to secure your home Wi-Fi network will help protect your devices from being hacked and your information stolen. To protect your home network and family, you need to have the right tools and make sure that family members can use the Internet more safely. Even if you have some extra protection for your router and home network, you need to make sure you don’t have security holes that online criminals can take advantage of.
If you don’t protect your router, you are vulnerable to others accessing information on your computer, using your Internet services for free, and potentially using your network for cybercrime. Some security experts say they configure their router so that only devices you authorize can access it.
You must use WPA2 security to secure access to your router, which essentially requires every new device to send a password to connect. To check if your router is using WPA2 encryption, check your network settings and wireless network properties. To enable encryption on your home or office network, go to the wireless security settings on the router’s settings and/or configuration page and in April.
After logging into the router, create a password to make your network more secure. A different password or network key than the one used by the router will be used to connect all devices to the Wi-Fi network. When setting up your network, log in to your router and set up a password with a secure encryption setting. After changing the login and password from the router, you need to change the home Wi-Fi network and the name of the home Wi-Fi network.
For detailed instructions on how to change the network name, click here. To update the network name, you must first access the modem’s wireless network settings by logging into the modem’s user interface and then entering the wireless settings menu. To find instructions on how to change the network password and router administrator password, first look for the router manufacturer’s name.
Changing the default name of a Wi-Fi network makes it harder for attackers to find the router manufacturer’s name and determine the default password. If you continue to use your wireless network without changing its default credentials, attackers will easily guess your login information if they know the router’s manufacturer.
If a hacker is able to get into the admin section of the router, he can change the settings and managed internet services(including the Wi-Fi network password). Once logged in as an administrator, you can change your password and otherwise manage settings that control network security. To simplify setup, most network devices come preconfigured with a default administrator password. These credentials aren’t secure by default, they can be easily accessed online, and can even be physically tagged on the device itself.
The router password (often referred to as the administrator password) allows you to access all your router settings (using a special URL in your browser), while the Wi-Fi or network password allows your devices to connect to your network. Depending on the age of the routers, it may be necessary to change both the administrator password (which gives access to the management interface) and the Wi-Fi password.
After connecting to your router’s browser management interface for the first time, the address should be the router’s default IP address listed on the sticker below or in the installation guide and make sure the first thing you do is change your password. If you want to allow a new device to connect to your network, you need to find its MAC address and add it to your router. Adding each MAC address on all your devices to your wireless router settings ensures that only your devices can connect to your network. If you only allow someone to connect to your wireless network once, remember that when he or she leaves your location, you can choose to remove their MAC address from your router settings.
Changing the default IP address to a less common one is another thing you should consider in order to better secure your home network and make it harder for hackers to track it down. Before making this change, go to all the networked computers and devices in your home and note down the IP address each one is currently using. To increase the security of your wireless network, you need to disable the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server on your router, which is the IP addresses assigned to every device on the network.
To improve the security of your home Wi-Fi network, it’s a good idea to place your Wi-Fi router as close to the center of your home as possible, which reduces the chances of a hacker connecting to your network. You can protect your mobile device by turning off Bluetooth when not in use, keeping an eye on the Wi-Fi networks you’re connected to, and using IT security apps to improve monitoring and protection.
To protect your Wi-Fi network from parasitic neighbors and anyone else, first activate router encryption and set your own password. Just update your router settings to WPA3 Personal or WPA2 Personal to encrypt your Wi-Fi network.
From our experts In addition to using long and complex passwords on network devices like routers and repeaters, you can also prevent other computers from connecting to yours. In addition to using passwords that contain letters, symbols and numbers, and some capital letters, for added security, require employees to periodically change personal passwords used on systems that access the company network (your company will have its own, but many computers will also allow personal password).
