Khadija Ishaq
4 min readNov 9, 2016

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12 WAYS TO SECURE YOUR WI-FI NETWORK

1. CHANGE PASSWORD:

The must requirement that clever people usually does with their wi-fi which prevents the unwanted users to easily access your wi-fi. Recommendation is to change the default password to a strong password consisting of combination of characters and numbers.

2. SECURITY MODE:

The security protocol can provide you with a lot of security which has WEP, WAP and WAP 2. It is recommended to change the security mode from basic WEP to WPA2 to provide your network with stronger encryption of information that is exchanged over network.

3. CHANGE NETWORK NAME:

The network name must be changed from default to a one which could be harder for person to recognize it.

4. MAC ADDRESS FILTERING:

Mac address filtering allows you to enter the Mac address of those devices which you want to permit to use the Wi-Fi.

3. UPGRADE YOUR ROUTER’S FIRMWARE

Some routers have the facility to check for firmware updates and others an automatic update facility. It’s good to check the support website for manually updating firmware of router model. For details visit how to upgrade your router’s firmware.

6. DISABLE REMOTE LOGIN

If you want to use remote access of your router so it will be safer to use NAT(Network Address Translation) rules to allow only VPN(Virtually Private Network) access.

7. DISABLE SSID BROADCAST

Service set identifier (SSID) is the name of Wi-Fi network for broadcast in air at regular interval fortunately our routers come with a feature to disable this broadcast and prevents the network to be detected.

8. BE AWARE OF PUBLIC WI-FI:

As soon as you connect to a public Wi-Fi network then your information is clearly visible to everyone in the range of network because network is generally not encrypted. Because a hacker can even decrypt your server information by using the open network.

9. SET YOUR ROUTER DNS (DOMAIN NAME SERVER) SERVERS TO AUTOMATIC MODE:

To prevent the attack from the hacker from coming between you and the access point so all the traffic between your phone or laptop pass through the hackers computer so he can inject files and data. It is recommended to turn the DNS to automatic mode.

10. USE A SECURE VPN IN OPEN/PUBLIC WI-FI HOTSPOTS:

If you can’t abstain from utilizing open Wi-Fi, then do not sign in or enter your credentials (specially for managing an account or charge cards), additionally your email and telephone number. Use the website with HTTPS protocol.

11. REDUCE YOUR WLAN TRANSMITTER POWER:

You won’t find this feature on all wireless routers, but some allow you lower the power of your WLAN transmitter and thus reduce the range of the signal. You make sure that signal won’t leak outside your home or business, you can often limit how far outside the premises the signal should reach, it will reduce the chances for outsiders to access your Wi-Fi.

You can also use other devices such as jammers to restrict the signal range but it won’t affect the performance of the Wi-Fi within the organization but by using the above mentioned technique you will suffer with the performance. You can control the range of your wifi signals manually.

12. WPS:

A router always has a WPS(Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button which makes it easier to connect your devices to your own network. It allows a user to enter into your network with a 8 digit pin instead of your wi-fi password.

To have routers with more new features we recommend you to have a look on the best wireless router of 2016.

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