The time has evolved from the necessities being food, shelter, and clothes to food, shelter, and clothes, and the internet. The internet is something that is running the whole world these days. Can you imagine a day without the web today? I hope that day never comes. Advancements, to have better internet, are going on the full pace from wired connections to wireless connectivities.
Wi-Fi is one such headway. It has remodeled the way we use the internet by introducing high-speed connections within many wireless devices without the clutter of wires. Wi-Fi routers are giving us access to trillions of things available on the web today at our home. It has granted us high physical mobility, which is leading to more productivity.
But, since it is wireless, it extends beyond the wall of your home, and anyone within a specific range can connect to your wireless access points. Still, you must be paying a certain amount for it, so you don’t want others to freeload off your Wi-Fi connection and also when it can alter your data speed.
With the easy access to the internet, Wi-Fi routers come along with a potential threat to your data on your devices. It inspects all incoming and outgoing traffic, acting as a sentinel to make sure that nothing nasty comes in and nothing sensitive goes out.
It regulates access to your home Wi-Fi network and through that all of your phones, tablets, laptops, and more. If someone else gains access to that network, whether a distant hacker or your next-door neighbor, your data is at a significant threat.
This could be trouble for bank accounts, credit or debit card details, child safety, and a whole lot of other concerns. The risk could be as detrimental as one with malicious intent could do some evil pursuit using your IP address, and legal authorities may seize you instead of him.
Despite these cynical points, we can not disregard the constraint of Wi-Fi. So we need to be extra cautious about our Wi-Fi networks. There’s no such thing as hack-proof or hacker-proof, just like there is nothing out there that is entirely waterproof. You need to consider implementing a few changes and routines that secure you from intruders, snoopers, and internet carpetbaggers.
A common way for hacker attacks is to manifest you with a false login alert, fooling Wi-Fi users into inscribing their username and password when they’re just sending the information to a hacker who can then intercept all the data passing between computer and router without detection. So you should be vigilant about such things, know the URL where your admin panel is, and never enter your credentials elsewhere.
Now we will consider some significant and necessary steps that you can take yourself to safeguard your Wi-Fi connection.
You should be using WPA2 or WPA3 wireless encryption to guard your router. If you are not using it, this leaves your network wide open, and hackers can virtually walk into your network way easily. Enable this, and it necessarily requires every new device to submit a password to connect. This is permitted by default on just about every router, but if it’s not active on your device, switch it on through your router settings.
Though WPA2 or WPA3 wireless encryption defines authentication protocols that are perverse to divulge, you should still choose a strong and complicated administrative password to access the setup/configuration page of your router and the wireless password.
Most of the people set up a unique wireless password but do not even care about the router admin password. They keep them default, which almost all routers have the same credentials, that is, username: “admin” and password “admin, “which is sinful, I would say.
A Wi-Fi password should be strong enough that it can severely mess up a hacker’s mind. Here are some quick tips to put a strong Wi-Fi password:
- Your password should be long enough, probably more than eight characters, because the most straightforward attack could be an exhaustive search of the characters by just using different permutations of characters.
- Passwords should contain non-sense random phrases, not the obvious ones.
- Also, you may avoid sequential keyboard characters like “qwerty.”
- Adding symbols, random numbers, and special characters are also recommended. Because this may outwit hackers to think that it can be encoded.
- Personal information in the password must be avoided.
But nowadays, we have tons of accounts, and remembering them is a tedious task, and adding a confusing WIFi password to this list may cause mayhem. So, you can use an authentic Password manager to store your passwords.
Change your Wi-Fi password more often. Yes, you will have to make the extra effort of reconnecting all your devices again, but it will lessen the chance of any unwelcome visitors who might be lurking to intrude on your network.
The Wi-Fi router runs on a low-level software called firmware, which essentially controls everything the router does. It sets the security standards for your network, defines the rules about which devices can connect, and so on. So it is imperative to keep it up to date. Now, in the direction of securing WIFi networks, the Router firms have also evolved.
Latest Routers have features that enable a network manager to manage the low-level authentication protocol provided by the router, like Router Client Management System allows you to see the connected clients and their IP/MAC addresses, you can control by allowing or blocking those devices which look malicious to you. This feature is available in almost all routers nowadays. One must use this to fortify a second level authentication for the clients to be connected to the network.
There is one more feature which I like the most, that is, the Guest network. Even though by using Router Client Management System, you have allowed only limited devices. But still, there could be a need like your friend or relative wants to connect to the network for a specific period, and you don’t want to share your super-strong password.
You can create a Guest network with a less secure password and share this for a specific period and then turn it off. This will not hinder your original secured Wi-Fi network. The good thing is, now, in this era of apps, these features are readily available via the mobile application of your router company.
Not only the password but changing your username also is a good idea. Along with username and password, changing the default IP address to a less common one is another thing you should contemplate to secure your home network better to make it more finicky for hackers to track it.
One more tip to protect your home Wi-Fi network is, all the devices that are connected to the network must enduringly enable firewall security, respectively. A firewall is an extra layer having security protocols that prevent your device from an attack done by a hacker that may have entered into your home network.
