To Secure Home Wireless Network , Essay Example

It is important to secure your home wireless network in order to protect it from use by people in your surrounding environment. Failure to do so can compromise the security of the files you share and slow down your Internet speed. Most importantly, it increases the ability of others to infect your computer with viruses, to steal your username and passwords in addition to other personal information, and to monitor the websites that you are able to visit. Therefore, it is necessary to take several steps to ensure that your home network remains safe from unwanted access.

The simplest way to prevent unwanted access to a wireless network is by setting a password for router access. It is simple to access a router without a password, and individuals with reception will be able to simply click on the router name and begin to use the connection for their own purposes. While setting a password can prevent this, it is essential to ensure that the password is secure. Using things like “password” is ineffective because it is easy to guess. Therefore, the password choice should consist of a mixture of letters and numbers that is easy for the primary user to remember but is difficult for outsiders to guess.

Next, the Service Set Identifier (SSID) should be set to something unique. If the SSID is left as the default, hackers will be privy to this and thus understand that your password is also in the default state. This makes it easier for individuals who are tech savvy to guess the password on this basis. The SSID can be anything, although it would be preferable to avoid using information in the ID that will provide your identity. If the hacker knows you, this makes it more likely that he or she will be able to guess your changed password if it is something personally relevant.

To ensure that the wireless Internet access is even more secure, users can enable MAC address filtering. This is a unique access code that is provided to each individual wireless networking card. Doing so will allow the hardware MAC address to be registered to the networked devices of your choice, and only devices with this MAC address will be able to connect to the network. It is important to consider, however, that it is still possible for the hackers to enter the connection, so this should be used in combination with other security techniques, such as WPA2 encryption.

Although there are multiple encryption methods available, WPA is recommended over WEP because it can be cracked using free software programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Before setting up WPA, it is essential to ensure that the access point or wireless card can support WPA2. Since it uses a pre-shared key, which is easier to break, passwords should be at least ten characters long using this method. However, WPA2 encryption, combined with an effective password, altered SSID, and MAC address filtering will allow a wireless network an excellent degree of protection.

In conclusion, it is important to combine a variety of wireless network security methods in order to ensure that maximal efficacy is obtained. It is essential to prevent unauthorized access to ensure information privacy. Ultimately, the types of protection that are necessary will continue to evolve as hackers and software programs become more advanced. Therefore, it is important to keep up with the latest security trends.

References

Baltzan P. (2012). Business Driven Technology. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.