How to Securing Your Wireless Home Network (Wi-Fi)
How to Securing Your Wireless Home Network (Wi-Fi)
The wireless
network (Wi-Fi) has made it so easy to use Internet from your computer, mobile
phone, tablets and other wireless devices anywhere in the house without the
clutter of cables.
With traditional
wired networks, it is extremely difficult for someone to steal your bandwidth,
but the big problem with wireless signals is that others can access the
internet via broadband connection, even when they are in a nearby building or
sitting in A car parked outside his apartment.
This practice, also known as piggybacking, is wrong for three reasons:
This will
increase your monthly internet bill, especially when you have to pay per data
transfer byte.
This will
reduce your Internet access speed because you now share the same Internet
connection with other users.
This can
create a security risk * because others can hack into your computer and access
your personal files through your own wireless network.
What do, the bad guys use?
There have
been a few cases where innocent Internet users were stopped by sending hate
emails they actually hacked their email accounts from the unsecured Wi-Fi
networks they had at home. Wireshark is a free tool for packet detection for
Linux, Mac and Windows that can analyze traffic flowing over a wireless
network, including cookies, forms and other HTTP requests.
HOW TO SECURE YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK?
The good news
is that it is not very difficult to secure your wireless network, which will
prevent others from stealing the Internet and will also prevent hackers from
taking control of your computer through your own wireless network.
Here are some simple things you should insure your wireless network:
STEP 1. Open the ROUTES configuration page!
First of all,
you should know how to access the settings of your wireless router. Typically,
you can do this by typing "192.168.1.1" in the web browser and enter
the correct username and password for the router. This is different for each
router, first check the user manual of your router.
You can also
use Google to find the manuals for most routers online in case you lost the
printed manual included with the purchase of your router. For your reference,
here are the direct links to the manufacturer's website for some popular brands
of Linksys, Cisco, Netgear, Apple AirPort, SMC, D-Link, Buffalo, TP-Link, 3Com,
Belkin.
Step 2. Create a unique password on the router!
Once you have
logged in to the router, the first thing to do to secure your network is to
change the router's default password * to something more secure.
This will
prevent others from accessing the router and can easily follow the desired
security settings. You can change the administrative settings password on the
router's configuration page. The default values are usually admin / password.
What the bad guys using?
It is a
public database of the default usernames and passwords of wireless routers,
modems, switches and other network equipment. For example, anyone can easily
distinguish from the database that the default Linksys computer settings can be
accessed using the user field administrator and password.
STEP 3. Rename the SSID network!
The SSID (or
wireless network name) of your wireless router is usually pre-defined as
"default" or defined as the brand name of the router (for example
linksys). While this does not make your network inherently * safer, changing
the SSID of the network is a good idea because this will make it obvious for
others to know which network they connect to.
This setting
is usually in the basic wireless settings on the router configuration page.
Once this is established, you can always be sure to connect to the appropriate
wireless network, even if there are several wireless networks in your area. Do
not use your name, address or other personal information on SSID name.
What the bad guys using?
Wi-Fi
scanning tools such as inSSIDer (Windows) and Kismet (Mac, Linux) are free and
allow anyone to find all available wireless networks in an area even if the
routers do not broadcast their SSID.
STEP 4. QUALIFYING NETWORK ENABLING!
To prevent
other computers in the area of use of the Internet connection, you must listen
to your wireless signals.
There are
several encryption methods for wireless settings, including WEP, WPA (Personal)
and WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2). WEP is a basic encryption and
therefore less secure (ie, it can be easily broken, but it is compatible with a
wide range of devices including old hardware, while WPA2 is the safest but only
compatible with manufactured equipment Since 2006.
To enable
wireless network encryption, open the wireless security settings on the router
configuration page. This will normally allow you to choose the security method
you want to choose; If you have older devices, select WEP, use another WPA2
mode. Enter a password to access the network; Be sure to adjust this to
something that would be difficult to guess for others, and consider using a
combination of letters, numbers and special characters in the passphrase.
What the bad guys using?
AirCrack and
cowpatty are free tools that allow hackers to even cracked the WEP / WPA (PSK)
key using dictionary or brute force techniques. A video on YouTube suggests
that AirCrack can be easily used to break WiFi encryption using a broken iPhone
or iPod Touch.
STEP 5. MAC ADDRESS FILTER!
If you have a
laptop or Wi-Fi mobile phone, all your wireless devices have a single MAC
address (this has nothing to do with an Apple Mac), since each computer
connected to the Internet has a unique IP address. For an additional layer of
protection, you can add the MAC addresses of all the devices in the wireless
router configuration so that only the devices can connect to the Wi-Fi network.
The MAC
addresses are encoded on your network computer, so it only lets you address one
of the devices on the network. Unfortunately, it is possible to forge a MAC
address, but an attacker must first know one of the MAC addresses of computers
that are connected to the wireless network before they can try to be afraid.
To enable MAC
address filtering, first check the list of all hardware devices that you want
to connect to the wireless network. Find their MAC addresses, and then add them
to the MAC address filtering in the administrative configuration of your
router. You can find the MAC address for your computer, open a command prompt
and type "ipconfig / all", which will display your MAC address next
to the "physical address" name. You can find the MAC addresses of
wireless mobile phones and other portable devices in your network settings, but
this may vary for each device.
What the bad guys using?
Someone can
change the MAC address of their own computer and can easily connect to the
network from the network allows the connection of devices that have that
particular MAC address. Anyone can determine the MAC address of his wireless
device by using a sniffing tool like Nmap and he can then change the MAC
address of his own computer into another free tool like Shift MAC.
STEP 6. REDUCE THE SIGNAL Wireless Range!
If the
wireless router has a high range, but you stay in a small study, you can
consider decreasing the range of the signal by changing the mode of your
802.11g router (instead of 802.11n or 802.11b) or using another wireless
channel.
You can also
try placing the router under the bed, inside a shoe box or wrapping a film
around the antenna of the router to restrict the direction of the signals a
little.
Apply anti-Fi paint _
Researchers
have developed a special Wi-Fi locking paint that can help prevent neighbors
from accessing their home network without having to configure encryption on the
router. The paint contains chemicals that block radio signals by absorbing
them. "By covering an entire room, Wi-Fi signals can not get in and, above
all, can not get out."
STEP 7. FIRMWARE your router!
You should check
the manufacturer's website from time to time to make sure your router is
running the latest firmware version. You can find the current firmware version
of the router from the control panel of the router to 192.168.
"Connect your secure wireless network"
To conclude,
MAC address filtering with WPA2 (AES) (and a very complex password) is probably
the best way to secure your wireless network.
Once you have
enabled other than the wireless router's security settings, you must add new
settings for your computers and other wireless devices so that everyone can
connect to the Wi-Fi network. You can choose to make sure that the computer
automatically connects to the network so you do not need to enter the SSID,
password and other information each time you connect to the Internet.
The wireless network will now be much more secure and intruders may have difficulty intercepting their Wi-Fi signals.
What is connected to the wireless network?
If you are
afraid that a user can connect to the Internet through their wireless network,
try AirSnare - this is a free utility that will look for unexpected MAC
addresses on your wireless network as well as DHCP requests. Another option is
to open the router administration page (using the address 192.168. *) And look for
the table of DHCP clients (ie in State> Local Network on Linksys routers).
Here you can see a list of all the computers and wireless devices connected to
the home network.
It is also
recommended to turn off the router when the computer is not going to be used
for a longer period of time (such as when buying). Electricity is saved and the
door remains 100% closed for wireless piggybackers.
If you want
to allow a new device to connect to the network, you will find the MAC address
and add it to your router. If you simply want a friend to connect to the
wireless network again, you can delete the MAC address of the router's
configuration when it leaves its place.