Three Simple Steps to Secure Your Wireless Router

Just about everyone seems to have at least one wireless router in
their home today. Typically, a wireless router was only used if you
had a laptop computer with a wireless card. Today, even those without
laptops seem to have wireless routers in their home. If you happen to
have your desktop set up in a different room from the internet
connection you can simply purchase a wireless router and a USB
wireless transmitter for your desktop to be able to communicate with
it. Due to the overwhelming presence of these devices and the fact
that if they are not properly secured that you could be the victim of
identity theft or bandwidth theft, it's imperative that you learn to
properly secure your wireless router.A router simply passes data
packets from your local network to your Internet Service Provider
(ISP), thus acting as a gateway from your household to anywhere on the
internet. Wireless routers are so quick and easy to set up that anyone
can do it nowadays. Sadly, very little emphasis seems to be paid to
security during the initial setup. Protect yourself and your
information with these three steps:First, always set a password on
your device. A good password needs to be at least eight characters in
length, using a combination of letters, numbers, and special
characters. Doing this will prevent unauthorized access to the
router.Next, always make sure that access via the network to the admin
panel has been disabled. By doing this you will force any changes to
your setup, including a password change, to be restricted to the
computer directly connected to the device. Put another way, if you
want to make changes to the device you have to be sitting in front of
it and not somewhere else.Finally, I always recommend turning off the
SSID broadcast. What this means is if you don't know the name to your
wireless network, you can't get on it, even if you know the password.
This way your network won't show up when someone is running a scan
looking for a network to get onto or possibly hack into. No name, no
access. Along these lines, make sure you pick a good network name and
don't use the default given to it. Perhaps you remember hearing about
a well-known internet search company that decided to map everyone's
wireless networks when taking photos for their 'Street View' feature?
Not broadcasting the SSID, as it's known, would have protected your
privacy in this case.Using these three simple steps will prevent
almost all possibility of unwanted access to your wireless network.
Just remember to check for the occasional firmware update from your
wireless router company's site. You can find a check-for-update link
within your router's control panel.