MAKING YOUR SYSTEM SECURE
Most homes and business these days have high-speed Internet access. Many of those have a wireless router in use. Roughly 50% of businesses and 70% of homes have no security enabled on those routers!
No encryption to you means all you have to do is turn on your laptop, click on ‘View Available Wireless Networks’, click on your network and BANG! Your connected. Unfortunately, this also means that anyone within range of your router (sometimes up to 500ft) can also connect to your network giving them access to you shared files and printers.
Sometimes people will do this inadvertently, and will not realize that they are on someone else’s network instead of their own. I’ve had customers complain that they’ve lost their wireless Internet access and after checking their system, found that they had been connecting to their neighbors network and the neighbors had moved.
Setting up the wireless encryption, which is built into your router and changing the network default name can remedy this problem. The manual, which comes with your router, should give you step-by-step instructions on how to do this. If you don’t have the manual, you can usually download it from the manufacturers website. There will be several encryption options available. Just make sure that whichever options you choose you pick the same options on your PC/Laptop that will be connecting to it.
Some general rules to follow: Do not name your network (Service Set Identifier or SSID) something that identifies you. This makes it harder for someone to hack your network. Use at least 128bit WEP for the encryption. It’s a really, really long alphanumeric sequence, but once you configure your wireless device you will not need to do it again. Turn off ‘Broadcast SSID’ option for extra security. Change the default password for accessing the router. Write down all changes and tape to bottom of router.
That’s it! If it becomes too hard or stops working altogether, call us and we’ll get you going again.
John Blizzard,
Blizzard Computer Service
MCSE, CIW, MCP, A+
(904) 230-3232
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