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Wifi Broadband Network Protection

WiFi hotspots are growing day by day. Most of the commercial complexes, airports, colleges, coffee bars and restaurants are wifi enabled and they do offer free wifi access to its users. They hardly bother about the aftermaths of such free offerings. Recently we heard in the news about the Indian Mujahudeen (SIMI) activists hacking the available free wireless netwoks and sending anonymous emails. It is not only the terrorists who hacks into our wireless network, even the normal civilian can do the same for illegal activities. So it is our responsibility to secure our wifi network from Hackers. Here are some ways/methods/tips to protect your private wireless network from unauthorized users –

1. MAC Address filtering - Each (NIC) network interface card has its unique Mac address and we can Enable the filter by providing wireless access to only those Mac addresses which are authorized by us.

2. Setting New Admin Passwords- Everybody gets their area wi fi enabled and forgets to change the default password on the router. The Router comes with a built in password and this needs to be changed.

3. Enable WEP encryption- Encryption is one of the major features of wireless network security. A data should be always encrypted before it gets transmitted on to the network. By Enabling the WEP encryption ensures that the data transmitted to a wireless access point is not readable.

4. Area Limitations for access points- The range of the access point is always a determining factor. Wifi Access points have to be placed at the right spots for the maximum availability of signal strength. An access point kept in the middle of a hall can provide equal strength to its nearby users.

5. Disable the Visibility of your Wifi access point- This can be done by disabling the SSID broadcasting system available on your computers wireless settings. SSID (service set identifier) is responsible for revealing the identity of your wireless access point. Disabling SSID will make it difficult for a hacker to identify the presence of your wifi access point.