Monday, January 10, 2011

Tips for a safer WiFi home network

WiFi Home Networks can be a great way to help retro fit your home network.  No cables to run, and no hard to reach areas.  Wireless networks are now able to go further, while ensuring that your information is secure.  Setting up your new wireless router is fairly painless.  Your experience will vary depending on the manufacture that you go with.  For the optimal experience, I would recommend either D-Link or Linksys (now Cisco.)  Each of these manufacturers have been at it for a while and know what they are doing.  Regardless of the manufacture, you should be able to configure these options to ensure your security of your network.

First and foremost, setup a unique password on your wireless router.  By changing your password you are helping to make sure that others that may gain access to your network can not change your settings very easily.

Second, Setup your Broadcast SSID.  The Broadcast SSID is the Identifier for your network, a name of sorts that lets you know that this is your network.  While on this setting I would recommend turning off the option that broadcasts your SSID.  By doing this you are making your network a lot harder to find by the common hacker.

Third, change the security of your network.  I would recommend WPA2, setting up a Passphrase, and turning off WEP.  WPA2 uses a stronger encryption method so all of your data that goes through the air is not easily intercepted.


These three items will help to make sure your experience on your home wireless experience is a safe one.

Happy New Year and Safe Browsing!  Computer Xbertz, your Trusted Computer Advisor.