How to Secure Your Wireless Connection

Having a wireless router means that you can now freely move around in your home with your laptop and still be able to to enjoy the Internet. Don’t want to connect long wires? No problem. Set up a wireless connection and now all of your computers with a wireless network card can enjoy being on the same network as if it was directly plugged in. You can get wireless routers for super cheap now days so price isn’t an issue anymore. However, because of the simplicity (sort of like Plug and Play) in setting up these devices, it often leads to unsecured devices because if it works, than the user will think that’s all there is to it! They are sorely mistaken and I will explain why here. I will of course also list the steps you can take to protect your wireless network.

Alright so you just purchased a brand new Linksys or Netgear wireless router for use. You followed the instructions and got everything setup. You turn on your laptop and it found your connection. You connect to it and now you are comfortably surfing the Internet on your couch. Good job! But is that it?

Wireless security is certainly a very big topic and I could go on and on for pages about how it works. However, what you need to know is that a wireless signal is much different than if you physically plugged in a cable to your router for the Internet signal. Why is that? Well, because if someone wanted to ‘steal’ your connection, they would have to physically break into your house and plug a Ethernet cable into your router and connect it back to their PC. Obviously you will find out about it sooner or later! With a wireless connection someone doesn’t actually need to plug in a cable to your router because with my laptop, I can actually catch or receive the signal being emitted from your router! Therefore, if I’m living next door to you, I can have free Internet and you’ll most likely will never know that! It’s a scary thought but this kind of situation happens almost everywhere. Don’t believe me? Using your same laptop you can see how much connection it picks up from other nearby wireless routers. If it’s an open connection (not password protected) then almost anyone can connect to it!

So now I will give you procedures and explain how you can lock down your wireless connection so that you and only you can connect to it. Also, another advantage of locking down your connection is so that data thieves can’t gather data and look at what you have been doing on the Internet. Oh yes, that’s definitely possible.

Alright so first things first. In order to do any of these steps, you will need to log inside to your router. Usually, this can be accomplished by opening up your favorite web browser and by typing in your router’s IP address (also known as the default gateway). This address can be either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. As soon as you hit enter, you will be prompted for a username and password dialog box. If you have never configured or even entered your router before, than you can use the default username and password supplied by your router manufacturer. If you do know, head over to this site to find out the information. As you can see how easily it is to obtain these default passwords, if you do not change it, attackers can simply login to your router and cause havoc. So this will be step 1 of my tutorial. I do want to point out that although there are a lot of different router models out there, a lot of the steps I point out do apply to them so it’s your job to locate it within your router configuration page. Also, it’s recommended that you do these steps from a computer that has a direct connection (not wireless) with the router.

#1. Change your router default password!

#2. Encrypt your connection
Doing this will password protect your wireless connection so that anyone (including you) who wishes to connect to your network will need the right password. Also this is what encrypts your connection so that snoopers can’t grab a packet you transmitted from your wireless network and see what’s inside. As a average compute user, you don’t need to know how encryption algorithms work. Just know that WEP is out and WPA2 is in. So if possible, use WPA2! As with all passwords, you need to create a strong and random password to use. I recommend going to Steve Gibson’s site (a very brilliant security guru guy) here to have it create a totally random password. You can maybe use the first 10-15 characters or even longer if you want to.

#3. Change your SSID network name
The SSID is basically your wireless network name. This is what identifies your network. Also, this is what outsiders see as well. The trick here is very simple. Try to create a name that can’t be easily tied back to you. Another thing I want to point out is whether you want to broadcast your SSID name to the outside world or not. This has been debated time and time again and probably still ongoing but in my opinion, you can leave the SSID broadcast turned on. Some security researchers believe that you should not broadcast your SSID name because it would make your wireless network seem to not exist. However, there are so many wireless tools out there that can sniff out the wireless traffic and still see your wireless network. It really serves no purpose other then to deter the most amateur of hackers. If you use WPA2 along as stated above with a really strong and random password, you are good to go.

#4 Disable wireless access to your router
Turning this setting off is optional but is highly recommended. It will be more of a hassle for you as if you do decide to turn it on, you must be directly connected to the router via a cable in order to configure the router. You will not be able to log back into the router if you are using a wireless connection. Obviously you can see what this aims to protect.

#5 Turn on MAC address filtering
This is another optional feature. A MAC address is the address assigned to your physical network cards. Every network card ever produced should have a different MAC address. If you turn on MAC address filtering, you can either specify only the MAC addresses that are ‘allowed’ to connect to your network or specify only the MAC addresses that are ‘disallowed’ on the network. To get the MAC address of your network card, simply open a command prompt and type in ‘ipconfig /all’ to view it. MAC addresses are not bullet proof and are very much spoofable. However in your home network, if turned on, it should be sufficient enough to deter the rookie hackers.

#6 Disable the UPnP feature
UPnP (Universal Plug N Play) is a feature that was designed to make it easier for programs and applications to communicate with each other whether on the local network or on the Internet. Needless to say, while it does make it easier to configure devices and applications with UPnP turned on, it’s been proven to be a security hazard.

#7 Update your router’s firmware from time to time
The firmware is basically a file that can patch known vulnerabilities in your router as well as give you router new features. For example, some older router models do not support WPA2 encryption. However you can check your router manufacturer’s home page to see if there is a new firmware out for your model that once installed, will enable you to use WPA2 encryption, saving you the hassle and money of buying a whole new wireless router. Be aware though. Updating a firmware (this is true for all devices, not just routers in general) is a very dangerous process. When you are updating a firmware, make sure you have a solid connection to your router and that you do not unplug the power to the router or turn it off when it’s in the middle of the process. Doing so can potentially brick your entire router and cause it to not boot up or work at all.

Remember, having a wireless connection is great but you must take the necessary steps to protect and lock it down. Otherwise, other people (whether with malicious intent or not) can come right in and use your connection. You might not care initially at the thought of that if you are a kind and shareful person but if that stranger do something very illegal on the Internet, remember, they are using your connection and so the IP address will be of yours.