Most people and company owners use lots of ways to monitor unaccredited users of their networks. However, your Wi-Fi may provide hackers with a much easier way inside, as Wi-Fi signals go beyond the walls of our homes or buildings.

Changing your username and password on your router may get you up and running, but there are still other ways of increasing your router’s security. Here, we will be discussing how you can make your router more secure and avoid unwanted problems.

Using a Firewall

The first line of defense from attackers or hackers is the firewall, but most routers already have built-in firewalls. They check data going in and out and block any activities that are suspicious. So, setting up a good firewall freeware is a good way of defending your network.

Mostly used by firewalls, packet filtering checks the header of a packet to know the source and its destination. The information is compared to a predetermined rule on whether the packet is authorized or not, and it is then determined whether it is to be permitted or be rejected.

Using Strong Encryption

For small companies and houses, it is practical to just use WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). WPA allows you to use the same password to connect with other family members; security is dependent on whether they share the password with other people. It also means changing your password from time to time when other people have already known about it.

In larger companies or organizations, it is more sensible to use the WPA in Enterprise Mode, as this allows each user to have their very own username and password when they are connecting to the network.

This makes things easier to control when someone leaves the company as you can easily disable their accounts. When using WPA in Enterprise Mode, you would have to run a server that stores the information for each person.

Using Secure Passwords

Our computers store a lot of information that we would want to be private. As the internet can be an entrance for hackers, putting up a password is one way of making your connection secure and safe. Make sure that any password you use for your Wi-Fi network is random and can’t be guessed by any random person.

It is rather easy to set up a piece of equipment by just using its default settings, especially when the username and password are printed on the back of the router itself for easy access and setup. Changing your username and password will make things harder for the hacker to gain access to your Wi-Fi.

Providing Separate Network for Guests

If you frequently have visitors use your Wi-Fi, it will be practical to offer a separate network. This way, they can still connect to the internet but won’t have any access to your company or home’s internal network. This is important for security reasons, and also as a means of preventing any infections with malicious threats to your network.

It makes a lot of sense to turn the WPA protection on for visitors using your network. This is to provide control over who uses it. By frequently changing your password, you can control the number of people who have access to your network.

On a more important note, this would protect your guests from the other people using your guest network, as they may pry on other devices. Each user’s data is inscribed with an individual session key, which keeps them safe from all the other users.

Takeaway

Prior to this article, the only method of protecting your network that you might have known about would be to simply set up a password. However, now you are a bit more knowledgeable on some other ways of taking further measures in protecting your connection. We have to be really serious when it comes to securing our network as there are a lot of people who might want to get into our networks and steal something from us.

Always be sure that you ask for help from your ISP or Internet Service Provider on ways of making sure your network stays secure. Searching online for other methods would be of help to you as well, as there are many people who put up tips on how to make your Wi-Fi network safe and secure.