Keep IT Simple

One of the best things about WiFi is that it gives you the ability to work virtually anywhere as long as there is a strong Wifi signal. If you have installed the wireless network in your home, you can work from your kitchen to your bedroom. If you have a laptop, you don’t need to drag the cable everywhere.

However, having a wireless network in your home is very dangerous when it comes to security. There may be someone that is trying to access your network and they will try to change the settings. Little did you know but they are already in command of your network and could easily snoop in to your hard drive. While there are additional softwares that could be installed to monitor those that try to access the network, you can increase your network security by specifying who can use the network.

The first thing you should do of course is to log in to your network admin site. When you purchased your wireless router, they should specify what address you should type in your web browser to access the information. Usually, they will use 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Be sure to properly connect your network components or at least have your computer detect a wireless signal.

Once you have accessed the admin page, look for a tab or a page where you could make some change in your wireless settings. Remember these things: SSID should be very familiar to you and your family. You don’t even have to follow what is recommended in the sticker. Be sure to DISABLE the SSID wireless broadcast. With this command, the SSID will be hidden from other Wifi enabled gadgets. From this point, you may be the only one who could use the wifi. Other wifi enabled gadgets will just have to wait as you configure them which is really easy.

In your wireless security settings, choose WEP or WPA encryption. WPA is more secured but will slow down your internet access. I personally recommend WEP since there will be a password generated before you could actually access the network.

Now comes the trickier part, you can specify the people who can access the wireless network by informing the router who can access them. You can do this by writing the physical address in the MAC field in your router settings page.

To access your physical address, go to your DOS prompt which could be accessed this way: start> programs> accessories> command prompt. Once the dos prompt is available, type in ipconfig/all. This will display all the important information about your computer such as your IP address and the physical address. Physical address should be composed of numbers and letters paired together. Write these numbers in the MAC field and don’t forget to save the settings so that it should take effect.

This simple security setting will make sure the number of users will be limited and of course the bandwidth will be shared only to those who are allowed. Unless you open the network, no one should be able to access your network and your hard drive.