Securing a wireless network

I have home networked 2 computers, both running Windows XP, with a router. The router (Netgear) has both cable and wireless capabilities. I use the cable networking.

I know my teenage neighbours have hooked into my wireless connection because their father told me! I went to the Netgear site on the internet and placed a password. I have the wireless section firewalled.

I’ve read some information on the PC Rescue site about securing home wireless networking, but what I want to know is how do I now check whether or not my computer is safer from people using the wireless. How do they do it?

First, I hope your neighbour has told the kids to get off your network. If they use up your data allowance for the month you’ll end up footing the bill or putting up with a slow connection.

Worse, if another neighbour decides to do something illegal, it’s in their interests to do it through your unsecured wireless connection. That way, the police will be raiding your place rather than theirs.

So it’s absolutely essential you get the security settings right on your wireless network.

To do this you’ll have to log onto your router and change the wireless security settings. We suggest setting the wireless encryption to WPA and using a passkey of at least ten letters and numbers that isn’t immediately obvious to your neighbours, that means not using the dog’s or kid’s names.

Doing this varies with the model router you have, basically you have to log onto the management website built into the router and look for the wireless security settings.

This should be explained in your router’s manual. If you don’t understand it, then call for some assistance.

Securing your wireless network is absolutely essential. If you fail to do this you can be exposed to large bills and embarrassing accusations. Do it now.


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    3 Responses to “Securing a wireless network”

    1. Thankyou. I knew I needed to place a password somewhere else.
      So on the back of the router I found http://www.loginrouter.com

      That site automatically detected my router.

      I found ‘wireless set up’ and it was showing ‘none’ in terms of security so changed that to WPA and put in a password. I hope that solves my problem. My limit on my broadband allowance had never been breached. What cuts that to nothing is watching TV series on the internet!

      Hopefully no-one will be able to do anything illegal from my computer now.

    2. [...] on using the laptop wirelessly then you should use WPA security. We have more on this on our Securing a Network [...]

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