Wireless networks are great, but you need to take some precautions to ensure the security of your network. In this post we are continuing our look at the seven important steps you can take to ensure the security of your WiFi network. All these steps can be done either during initial setup or using the administration tools of any wireless router such as the D-Link DKT-710 Wireless G ADSL2 router.

Step 2 - Change the default SSID and don’t broadcast

All manufactures provide their access points and routers with a default network name called the SSID (which stands for Service Set Identifier). The default SSID is usually the same for all of a manufacturer’s products. It is a good idea to change this name to something that is meaningful to you only and will make it difficult for someone to identify your specific device. A default SSID is more likely to attract unwanted attention. The majority of setup wizards will prompt you to change the default SSID so do so. You should also turn off SSID broadcast which is not really useful for a home wireless network, this will again minimise the attraction of unwanted attention.

Step 3 - Enable secure encryption

All wireless access points and routers support a number of different variations of wireless encryption. You should always enable encryption during the initial setup or if you didn’t so go and do it right now! You should use the strongest form of encryption that your device supports. For home networks using modern equipment this is likely to be WPA Personal (PSK) the PSK stands for “Pre-Shared Key” which is essentially a pass phrase. Any device that connects to your network will need to know this pass phrase.

Step 4 - Use Mac Address filtering

A more advanced step is to use MAC address filtering. MAC stands for “Media Access Control”. Each device that has a networking capability will have a MAC address. The majority of wireless access points and routers support MAC Address filtering. To set this up you need to publish on your router a list of all the MAC address of the devices that will connect to your network. The router will then not allow a connection from any device that does not have a MAC address on the list.

We will finish with steps 5, 6 and 7 in the next post.