Securing your Wi-Fi network
Google’s recent confession on Wi-Fi snooping has got me thinking of this topic and I decided to write a small post on how to secure your home wireless network.
Some Background
According to articles, Google Street View vehicle and team has been collecting from unprotected data accidently. Its main aim was to collect Wi-Fi SSID’s and MAC addresses to enhance location based services like Google Maps and Google Buzz. But some how due to wrong programming it has collected data from unprotected/secured Wi-Fi devices. That means they have partially collected whatever sites you have surfed. Interesting and scary eh!
Securing your Wi-Fi
When your computer connects to the wireless device, it sends data through and from the device. If this transfer is not encrypted or password protected, hackers can easily intercept your data packets. Another reason to password protect is stop wardriving. Which is protecting random strangers from connecting to your internet. They could use your internet to cause havoc online like hacking and site vandalism or for some other malicious purposes.
Encrypting these data transfers makes it difficult for the hackers to gather your data unless powerful computers are used.
Types of Security
The are a few encryption technologies, mainly WEP, WPA and WPA2. Recently, WEP has been defeated in like two minutes and security experts do not recommend this anymore. Next best is WPA and WPA2.
In some cases WPA2 will not work as the laptops or portable devices might not support that encryption. In my case, I am using WPA as the WPA2 is not supported in 2 of my family members laptop.
How to?
There is a very high chance that when you purchase your wifi router it will not be preconfigured with any security. Using it right away is stupid and you should avoid it. Get it configured first before getting any wireless devices connected.
Below example shows me using the 2wire 2701 wifi router issues by my ISP Singtel. Though I hate this router I have to use this to make my IP phone and VOIP TV work. It does not work on any other routers. Sucks I know!
Login to your routers configuration page. You should be able to get the correct address from the manual/guide. First of all change the login password from the default to something else.
This is the main configuration page I see. You should see something similar. In your browser key in 192.168.1.254.
Click on Home Network followed by Wireless Settings. You will see these options. Your LinkSys and Dlink routers should have something similar too.
Network name: This could be your name or some weirdname to your liking.
SSID Broadcast: Enable it if you want everyone to see it. Might be easy when your friends or relatives dropby to use. As an additional security you can disable it. But when you connect from a laptop you will need to manually key in SSID which can be cumbersome.
Enable Wireless Security. Obviously you have to this to secure the network. In my case I selected WPA-PSK and chose a 10 digit password.
MAC Filtering: Every network device has a hardware number tagged to it by the manufacturer. You can this filtering to allow access only to your own computers while it blocks any others from connecting. I find it troublesome and have not enabled it.
Conclusion
The above is just to show you how to quickly protect your wireless network. Each one of you should get it done now, if you don’t have security in place. THIS IS IMPORTANT. It is like leaving your front door unlocked and allowing thieves to steal stuff!
If you dont know how. Call your techie friend or family member to help you out..
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