Securing Your Personal Wireless Router

How do I secure my wireless network?

How do I secure my wireless network, you ask? A few things that you must do without getting too complicated is change your administrative password on your router, change the SSID (Service Set Identifier), choose a method to secure your connection (WPA or WEP) and secure that method with a long high quality password. If your router comes with a wizard then it should be able to walk you through all these steps quite easily.

First of all, the administrative user interface is used to configure your router so you need to setup a strong password. Some routers come with a default password and some don’t have anything at all. This password prevents any unauthorized access to your interface options. Usually the default username is something like "admin". In other words, all the encryption in the world isn't going to help you if someone can just go in and change it on you.

Next, the SSID should be changed to something other than the default, which may broadcast the router’s make. An example for instance would broadcast “Linksys”. The SSID is set by a network administrator to broadcast to all wireless devices within range of the network access point. It’s better not to advertise this information as you’re just giving would-be crackers more information about the equipment you’re using. When thinking up an SSID make sure you don’t use any personal information such as “the Smith Family” or your real name. Think up something unique instead. Some people opt to turn off broadcasting which gives a bit more privacy from neighbours and passer-bys but this does not stop determined wireless sniffers from finding you.

To secure or lock access to your wireless connection, you need to choose a method of security. Older routers just offered WEP but now you can choose between WEP and WPA. WEP stands for Wireless Equivalent Privacy and WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access. There are major differences between the two in both security and performance. As WEP indicates, it’s not really security so much as it is a means of privacy. It’s like working in a busy office and closing your office door while you’re on the phone but not locking it. Anyone can barge in and interrupt your call at any time. Whereas, WPA is a very strong lock that uses an encryption method to transport data between the wireless devices and access point. In some cases, slowing down the connection speed as it does its work. WEP uses encryption as well but it’s easier to crack than WPA. The bottom line is that WPA is the better choice for security but sometimes it doesn’t work as efficiently or at all if you have any older devices on your network. Whichever method you choose, something is better than nothing so be sure to activate at least one of your options as it still may be enough to deter a cracker. Again, regardless whether you choose WEP or WPA, you need to setup another strong password. This password is different than your administrative password as it is used to encrypt data as it travels in the air and then decrypt it once it gets to its destination. Steve Gibson at Gibson Research Center has a really great perfect password generator that you can use to find a secure password. He also explains the differences between random hexadecimal, printable ASCII and alpha-numeric characters. There are still so many users out there with unsecured networks that unless you’re specifically under attack for some reason it’s much easier for a cracker to move on to an easier target.

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