6 Ways to Secure your Home Network

No doubt, Wi-Fi accessibility has added much ease and convenience in our lives but the challenge it brings along is protection from unnecessary intrusions. Almost all providers offer an in-home Wi-Fi facility with an internet subscription. We enjoy being able to access the internet from anywhere inside our house while carrying out our online routines on our smartphones or laptops. However, securing your home network is something that should not be ignored at all. The first step is to choose providers that offer a more reliable internet and offer a secure connection, for instance, subscription to one of the Spectrum bundles offers you a security suite to protect your network from viruses or any malware. This is a crucial aspect to keep in mind when choosing your internet service provider. Having said that, there are many simple steps and practices that can be followed to ensure maximum protection of your home network against any hacker.

Anyone who visits your house and asks for your Wi-Fi password can be a concern. Since whenever they pass by your house, they can connect to your router and access your network. Once the password is out, anyone can access your home network. This is why you must adopt these routines and practices to save your network from such intruders. There are primarily two issues to address here. First, you need to take control of who accesses your network. The second concern is the signal footprint so the people outside your home should not be able to pick a signal from your router and access your data. Let's check them out!

Using a Complicated Router Password

If any visitor comes and asks for your Wi-Fi password, it is usually impossible for you to say know. If you have kids in the family and their friends visit over, they will ask for the password. However, you can still take the situation in your control. You need to choose a complicated password for your router so it is hard to remember for visitors. Usually, the password is not visible once it is entered into a device. So people who have it cannot be able to pass it to others if it will be a tough one. Avoid using a conventional password that is simple. You can choose a combination of letters, numbers, special characters, mix uppercase, and lower case so no one can recall it completely. Ideally, you should choose a password with 15 to 20 characters and store it in a safe place.

Changing the Password Periodically

Make it a routine to change the password at regular intervals. Changing your router password regularly can be one of the best techniques to make sure your network stays free from snoopers. Do not forget to note your password somewhere safe. It will not be much of a nuisance since your Wi-Fi router usually needs a one-time login to allow unlimited access. So, you can keep changing your password weekly.

Hiding the Network

You can hide your home Wi-Fi by blocking your router from transmitting out its identifier. This means that those who have connection data saved in their devices will be able to access but the outsiders who pass by your house or live close won't be able to see it in their network list.

Strengthening your Wi-Fi Encryption

There are many hacker tools available for free that can penetrate weak Wi-Fi encryption. Many Wi-Fi protection systems are available to provide maximum security to your systems. Three of the most popular ones include WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy, WPA 2, or Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 and WPA or Wi-Fi Protected Access. Among these three, you can utilize WPA 2. A stronger version of this is the WPA2 AES. Make sure you change your Wi-Fi encryption in the router console to AES encryption in the second picklist and WPA2 in the first list, to allow maximum Wi-Fi encryption.

Keeping the Firewall On

Usually, routers come with a firewall switched on but you need to check it is on. You can check the console settings and turn the firewall on. If you are unable to figure it out, you can seek your provider’s help by contacting its customer support representative. Routers usually have a NAT or Network Address Translation system that can prevent strangers from accessing addresses of the devices present on your network. Thus, undesirable traffic is blocked. In addition to this, your router also possesses a hardware firewall that further maximizes the protection of your network and must be turned on.

Make Use of a VPN

VPN or Virtual Private Networks help to provide better security on the internet along with privacy benefits to your router to keep them safe from intruders. A VPN can be very effective in encrypting traffic from and towards your computer. Thus, you can stay safe from fake connections. A VPN encryption therefore further assists in making your data inaccessible for others.

Wrapping Up

The aforementioned simple yet extremely effective techniques can be used to maximize your home network security so you stay safe from any intruders or hackers. You should also turn your Wi-Fi router off when you are not using it. This further helps in keeping snoopers away. It is also a safe practice to unplug any of your electronic devices, which are not in use at night. You do not have to be a tech genius to improve your home network security. All you have to do is to adopt smarter habits to keep your network and data safe!