Nowadays everyone has a Wi-Fi router at home to provide internet access to the family. With technology and with the boom of the Internet, we often don’t want to visit a friend’s house which does not have Wi-Fi. When people drop by, they often ask you the password so they can use your Wi-Fi connection to check something on their smartphones, that’s the world we live in now. Before long, with more and more visits many people will have access to your Wi-Fi whenever they pass by your house. Depending on the router, the range of the connection can be as long as the next door neighbor’s garden.
Since the Wi-Fi network is intangible, it is difficult to control once the password access is known by many. In such cases, it is difficult to control who can access your network. Therefore, you need to implement home network security to make some changes and create some routines to protect you from hackers, snoopers, and intruders.
Improve your security
To secure your home network from intruders, here are the steps you can take to improve your safety:
- Use a strong password– Use a password that is unique to you, which is hard to predict and not related to your Wi-Fi name. If the Wi-Fi name is close to your password, chances of people cracking the code is 50% higher. For a strong password, the ideal length is 20 characters, but you can shorten it to 12. Also, make sure you change your password frequently.
- Change the Admin Credentials (of the Router) – You can access the console from any device connected to the network. When you access the console, change the admin password with a strong password no less than 12 characters. If you do not have the password set to a ne, different password frequently, network hackers can more easily crack the login credentials and get access to the admin panel.
- Limit the WPS– Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) lets new devices easly connect to the router. WPS presents a security weakness because the code used is easy to crack. Turn off the WPS completely because the code is a serious problem for your home network security.
- Turn the Router Off – Many times when you leave home and no one is using it, remember to turn off the router. Make it a routine that the first person to wake up turns on the router and the last person to leave the house or goes to sleep turns the Wi-Fi off. This will reduce the chances of getting hacked and also will bring down your monthly internet bill.
- Strengthen Encryption– Since hackers can easily hack Wi-Fi encryption, make sure you use strong Wi-Fi encryption. You can change it through the console. The best one you can use is the WPA 2(Wi-Fi Protected Access 2). You can also get a better version of this called the WPA2 AES; this version uses AES cipher which makes it impossible to crack.
Improve your Privacy
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are primarily used to improve your privacy on the internet. Aside from privacy they also offer security benefits that help protect your router from intrusion. There are many benefits of a secure VPN service; whether you are in a coffee shop sharing hotspots or at home using your network, it will make you invulnerable to hacks even if the encryption in the router is cracked, the VPN encryption is still there to make your data unreadable. Hackers tend to use intermediary attacks to steal data from users connected to the same network; VPN can be used to avoid such attacks.
Conclusion
News of identity theft and ransomware are frequent these days. So make sure you use a home network security to avoid these intrusions to your private data. Using a secured router box with a strong password and a secured VPN service will surely make your Wi-Fi network safe and sound. All the steps listed above are easy to follow, and you do not need to be a technical person, just simple steps and smarter habits will surely help in securing your home network.
