Last week we talked about the importance of WiFi security. This week we’ll talk about how to do that.
Your router will generally have a “WAN” (wide-area network) jack, and four “LAN” jacks. The WAN jack connects to your cable or DSL modem: it’s your connection to the internet. The LAN jacks can be used with network cables to your computer. And lastly of course it will have a “wall wart” power supply that must be connected.
Most if not all WiFi routers have some form of web-based configuration tool. The best way, at least initially, to access the configuration tool is to connect the router to your computer with a network cable. Once they’re connected, you should see a network connection icon in the system tray which is the group of icons in the right end of the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Check the manual for your router to see what the URL for the configuration tool is: it will probably be “192.168.0.1″ or something like that. Type that into the address bar of your web browser, where you would normally type a website URL. You should get a login screen: the login will probably be “admin” with a blank password.
Once you’ve logged into the configuration tool, you might want to explore the different tabs and links to familiarize yourself with the interface. Don’t change anything yet, just familiarize. Then, the first thing to do is to change the password for the router — obviously having a blank password isn’t very secure. If the router has the ability to change the admin login name, change that too, preferably to something besides “admin” or “administrator”.
Next, find the setting for whether the router will allow access to the configuration tool from the internet. My router hides this under the “tools” tab, in the “admin” option, listed as “Enable Remote Management” This feature should be disabled — you don’t want people being able to access your router configuration from the internet!
Next, find the configuration for wireless. Mine is under Setup/Wireless Settings. Change the SSID which is the Wireless Network Name to something meaningful to you, but not others — you don’t want a drive-by to be able to identify your router. Next, set the security mode to WPA or WPA2. You may see “WEP” as a security mode, WEP is not very secure. If there is an option for it, use WPA2. You will need to set a pre-shared key for the WPA/WPA2. Choose something you can remember but would be impossible for somone else to guess, and the more characters it has, the better. You will need to record your network name and the pre-shared key for setting up wireless devices on your network. When you set up your computer to use wireless, select the network with the name you chose, and when prompted put in the pre-shared key, that should get you connected.
The WiFi Alliance has a pretty good article on website security, you can see it at www.wi-fi.org/security.php.
Next week: more on Botnets. As always, you can read this and other Wizgidget articles at wizgidget.com