Step1. A firewall is a basic to secure your wireless networks
Firewalls aren’t just software programs used on your PC, they also come in the hardware variety. A hardware firewall does pretty much the same thing as a software one, but its biggest advantage is that it adds one extra layer of security. The best part about hardware firewalls is that most of the best wireless routers have a built-in firewall that should protect your network from potential cyber-attacks. This article can help you figure out if your router has a firewall built-in and how you can activate it. And we strongly suggest turning it on t if it’s not by default as an extra layer of protection. If your router doesn’t have one, you can install a good firewall device to your router in order to protect your system from malicious hacking attempts against your home network.
Step2. Enhance protection for the devices most frequently connected to your home network
Important: Do not leave any exposed vulnerabilities for online criminals to pick on! Even though you’ve increased protection for your router and home network, you need to make sure you don’t have any security holes that can be exploited by online criminals. Here’s what we recommend you to do:
- Remember to always keep your devices up to date with the most recent software available;
- Always apply the latest security patches to ensure no security hole is left open to malicious actors.
- check which devices connect most often to your home network and make sure they have antivirus and/or anti-malware security software installed. If you don’t know which one should you choose, this guide will be very useful.
- Make sure to protect your devices using multiple security layers consisting of specialized security software such as updated antivirus programs and traffic filtering software. You may consider using an antimalware software program like our Thor Foresight or Malwarebytes.
Step3. Change your default IP address on the Wireless router
Changing the default IP address to a less common one is another thing you should consider doing to better secure your home network and make it more difficult for hackers to track it. To change the IP address of a router, you should follow these steps:
- Log into your router’s console as an administrator. These basic steps will teach you how to easily connect to your home network as an admin. Usually, the address bar type looks like http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1
- Once you are there, insert the username and password on the login page;
- Then select Network > LAN which is in the menu on the left side;
- Change the IP address to preference, then click Save.
Note: After you’ve changed the IP address, you’ll need to type the new IP address into the web browser bar. You can also change the
DNS server that your Wireless router is using to filter the
Internet traffic and this guide will show how to do it.
Step4. Use a strong network administrator password to increase Wi-Fi security
To set up your wireless router, you usually need to access an online platform or site, where you can make several changes to your network settings. Most Wi-fi routers come with default credentials such as “admin” and “password” which are easy for malicious hackers to break into.
Example:
Use strong password like #CyBer*AbdU ✓ but don't use admin or cyberabdu
Step5. Increase your Wi-Fi security by activating network encryption
Wireless networks come with multiple encryption languages, such as WEP, WPA, or WPA2. To better understand this terminology, WPA2 stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 and is both a security protocol and a current standard in the industry (WPA2 networks are almost everywhere) and encrypts traffic on Wi-Fi networks. It also replaces the older and less secure WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and is an upgrade to the original WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) technology. Since 2006, all Wi-Fi-certified products should use WPA2 security. WPA2 AES is also a standard security system now, so all wireless networks are compatible with it. If you want to enable WPA2 encryption on your Wireless router. If you are using a TP-Link wireless router, here’s how to secure your wireless network. The good news is that the WPA3 is already here and will replace WPA2. The Wi-Fi Alliance recently announced its next-generation wireless network security standard which aims to solve a common security issue: open Wi-Fi networks. More than that, it comes with security enhancements and includes a suite of features to simplify Wi-fi security configuration for users and service providers.
Final thoughts
Securing the home network should be a top priority for each of us interested in keeping the data safe and secure. These steps can be really useful even for the non-tech-savvy person to apply. Also, do not forget that your wireless network security can be sometimes weak, and prone to exploits. It almost doesn’t matter how strong your password is or if your software is up to date if cybercriminals can just hijack your Wi-Fi data. So this is why we’ve written this guide on how to secure a wireless network. You still have to keep an eye out for insecure Wi-Fi routers out there, however, since most will probably still use WEP and not follow these safety procedures.
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