5 tips on securing your insecure wireless (wi-fi) network

admin | January 9th, 2010 - 5:50 am

5 tips on securing your insecure wireless (wi-fi) network

Wireless networks and routers are becoming more ubiquitious by the day. Many people are exchanging their traditional cabled networks with wireless as it provides many benefits. For example, users aren’t physically limited to one area as the radio waves of wireless networks can be broadcasted around the whole premises. However, there will always be problems which comes with benefits. One major problem is that many people don’t secure their wireless (wi-fi) networks. This allows people who are within the distances of the router broadcast limit to easily piggybank your connections. Why is this a problem? They’ll be stealing your internet bandwidth, making your internet connection slower. They may also take part in illegal activities such as downloading movies and musics from P2P networks and who gets  the blame if the cops find out? You. Because its your network. So how do you secure your wireless (wi-fi) networks and routers? Here are some tips.

1. Secure your wireless administration interface

All wireless routers should come with a  wireless administration interface. It allows you to many important jobs such as changing your wireless security router and modifying ports. How do you access the wireless administration interface? You have to first find out your Network Gateway number. Start run, and type in ‘cmd’. This should open the command inteface. Now, type in ‘ipconfig/all’ and a list of numbers should appear. Look for your default gateway number and note it down. Now open up an internet browser and type in http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. The xs are your default gateway number. Enter your password and username, should be in your router manuals, and change your password to something secure.

2. Don’t broadcast your SSID

The SSID (Service Set Identifier) is a name used to specifically identy a wireless router. For example, your SSID Router would be ‘John’s router’ if you set it that way. If you want your wireless network to be private then don’t broadcast your SSID. Most wireless administration interface should give you the option to disable SSID broadcast.

3. Enable WEP encyrption protection

Include a WEP security protocol. This is basically a passwrod to unlock your network. Make it difficult to guess. Include upper case, lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Your WEP encryption password should be 13 letters long. Again, check the wireless router inteface to change your password (do you get how important it is now?).

4. Reduce your wireless transmiting power

Nowadays, you can get wireless standards 802.11g and 802.11n. These networks can brodcast radio waves as far as 25 metres or more. If all your computers are in one room then reduce yoru wireless transmitting power so that only computers in that specific room has access to the wirelesss network. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available for all routing software programs. Search up your router model and see if it has it.

5. Use MAC filtering

Yoru MAC address (Media Access Control) address is a number which uniquely identifies a device in a network. So your laptop/computer will have a unique MAC address in a network. Turning on MAC filtering allows you to only enable certain devices to connect to your network. How do you filter? You’ll first need to identify the MAC addresses of all the devices which you want connected to the network then use the wireless router administration panel to exclude them from the filter.

James is, co-author of the free Spyware Removal blog, writes frequently about various issues regarding online internet security. Feel free to read more articles at our blog.

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The Future Of Wireless Uk Broadband

admin | January 2nd, 2010 - 2:51 pm

The Future Of Wireless Uk Broadband

Wireless broadband in the UK has never seemed to take off as well as wired broadband. Most households in the UK have the ability to get broadband internet, but wireless access is limited.

There are many reasons why wireless internet is better than wired internet, but in the UK it seems that no provider can get it to work for the users. It may just be, though, the answer to those living in remote areas where broadband service is less than desirable.

The wireless providers are finding a niche market in remote areas, the younger generation and business minded people who are seeing the perks of a wireless connection.

The difference between wireless and wired internet is basically that wireless internet uses no wires, where wired internet does. A wireless service is sent through radio signals instead of through lines and cables.

A person with a wireless connection can hook up to the internet without ever hooking anything into their computer. With a little set up the computer is ready to be used with a wireless internet service.

Then a person can use their computer wherever they like, as long as it is within an area where wireless broadband is offered. Wireless internet provides so much freedom to both providers and users.

For the provider wireless UK broadband is a far better solution than wired. Wireless internet connections are much easier to set up and maintain than wired services. It is also far easier to get wired services to remote areas than wired services, which is why wireless service is heavily promoted to people in those areas.

For the user, wireless internet offer flexibility. Nothing wired into a computer, no need to add new lines and far fewer maintenance issues.

With a wireless connection a person is no longer confined to their home, hooked into the broadband connection, they can use their wireless connection around their home or in many of the public places that offer wireless broadband access, like pubs or restaurants.

Wired internet is most popular for laptop computers and mobile phones. Many people do not see the idea stretching to their home computer and feel that it is complex and too involved for them to deal with. With three-quarters of the population of the UK using broadband services, only a third are actually using wireless technology.

The internet choices in the UK change rapidly. Wireless UK broadband is still fairly new, but many companies are jumping onboard to provide it to their customers. Currently wireless

UK broadband is available to limited areas. As the providers work through the kinks and get more users interested, it is likely that wireless broadband will overtake wired broadband as the internet service of choice.

For more information on how UK broadband contact http://www.ukispreview.co.uk

Robert Michael is a writer for www.ukispreview.co.uk which is an excellent place to find broadband links, For more information go to: wireless uk broadband