How to secure your Local Wireless Network from hackers

A K A S H

Now a days we are seeing a large migration to wireless network from old fashioned wired ethernet. The new wireless standards like Wireless N offered the same speed of data transfer compared to fast ethernet though it is not yet possible. But in near future it will be possible. So what is the major advantage of wireless over wired network is we can avoid the long irritating cables. But the major headache with wireless is it spreads through an area where any one can access it. So securing wireless network from unautherized access is very important. The major points in securing your wireless network are:

1. Set WPA on your wireless router


The most important thing to secure your wireless network is to set a wireless key on your wireless router. But we should use WPA(Wired Equielent Privacy) encryption instead of WEP. WEP is vulnarable and many tests conducted to prove it.


2. Reduce the area of wireless transmission


The next step we can do is reduce the area of wireless coverage. If we can reduce the area of wireless transmission in to our premises, it will be difficult for others to sneak in to it.


3. Enable MAC filtering on your wireless router


It is advisable to enable MAC filtering on your wireless router. We should allow only specific computers with allowing their MAC address only in to the network. All other computers with different MAC address will be rejected from the wireless network.


4. Hide your wireless network name (SSID)


It is another security precaution. We should hide our wireless network name by not broadcasting the SSID(Service Set Identifier). SSID is the technical name of wireless network name. So it will be one more obstacle in hackers way.


5. Set a strong password for your wireless router


It is the last point in securing the network. You should set a strong password for your wireless router after configuring it. Most of the users left it with the default password as it is the admin or simply the vendor name.