Posted on July 21, 2009 - by admin

How to secure your wireless router

I’ve recently been asked by a few people how to secure their wireless router because they recently made the switch from wired to wireless. Just because the Verizon or RoadRunner representative came in your house and set up your modem doesn’t mean you’re totally set on security. If it’s visable, it’s easily hackable. Check these steps to make sure you’re secure:

1. Go to your wireless configuration by opening your browser (Internet Explorer or FireFox) and type in http://192.168.1.1  if this doesn’t work, use http://192.168.2.1
2. Change the Admin password here. Most wireless routers have a blank password. If your neighbor has any brains at all, he could easily type in 192.168.1.1, type admin and leave the password blank – all to get into your settings and adjust them to work in their favor.
3. Change the Network name, otherwise known as the SSID. By default, a wireless router’s SSID is broadcast so anyone in the vicinity of your wireless router can see that it. SSID broadcasting can be turned off making your wireless router virtually invisible.
   
4. Enable Encryption if your provider didn’t do it when installing it for you. Most services will do a WEP encryption. If you’re installing this yourself, this is switched off by default. There is a choice of WEP, WPA and WPA2. Currently the latest encryption method is WPA2 so use this where possible. Both your wireless router and wireless PC adapter must be configured to use the same encryption.
   
   
5. Control the MAC addresses entered. All hardware has a unique MAC address associated with it, including your PC adapter card. This MAC address can be added to access control list in the wireless router. Only devices added to the router’s access control list are allowed to be connected. Don’t know your MAC address? (XP users) Go to Start > Run > type “cmd” and press Enter > at the Command Prompt, type “ipconfig /all”. Make sure there’s a space between the g and /. Your MAC address is listed under Physical Address.
   
6. Make sure the router’s firmware is up-to-date. It is recommended that the latest router firmware is downloaded from the manufacturer’s website and installed in the router. This will hopefully fix any bugs that have been found for your router and also help with any known security flaws in the router itself.
7. Last, Backup Router Settings. If you reset the router back to its factory default settings for whatever reason, your configuration can later be easily and quickly restored back into the router.

If you don’t have an antivirus or security on your computer, please visit one of the links below to see what works best for you.