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Wireless Tips

Wireless Home Networking

First and foremost, online users should proactively take all the necessary steps to safeguard their computers. A key component to computer security is password protection. Make sure your administrator account on your computer is protected by a password that is hard-to-guess but easy-to-remember. This is especially important if you have a home network of computers. You don't want people using your Wi-Fi connection to gain easy access to your computer. In Windows XP set your password in the "Control Panel" under "User Accounts." In Macintosh OS X (10.3) set your password in the "System Preferences" under "Accounts" or "My Accounts."

No matter where you are, it is important that you use an SSL secure connection for transactions involving the sharing of personal information: Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology encrypts transactions by creating a secure tunnel between your computer and the Web site server. Before you type in your credit card or sensitive information, be sure to look for indicators that the site is encrypted. This is shown by either:

• A closed lock on the bottom of your screen.
• An unbroken key on the bottom of your screen.
• The prefix https:// instead of http:// in the URL -- look for the "s".
• Firefox users will find that a secure URL will be highlighted in yellow in your address bar.

For more information on protecting your computer and information when going wireless, please view our Wireless Security Basics Guide, with content provided by Symantec.

Tips for Securing Your Home Network

These tips will help you to keep your Wi-Fi connection and computer secure when using a private wireless network.

• Change Your Base Station's Default Password: Many of the Wi-Fi base stations come with easy to guess default passwords such as "admin" or "default" -- allowing would-be hackers to take control of your base station settings. Make sure you change that default password to a hard-to-guess, but easy-to-remember password.

• Protect Your Wireless Network With a Password: A slightly more complicated but more secure way to keep out strangers is by creating and encrypting (or scrambling) your wireless network password. Anyone seeking to access your Wi-Fi network will need to type in the correct encrypted password. Many older base stations use Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption to scramble the passwords. While this encryption code will keep out a casual hacker, it has proven weak against more determined hackers. A new encryption protocol, called Wireless Protected Access (WPA), comes with newer base stations.

• Configure Your Base Station To Allow Only Your Computer MAC Addresses: Every computer is identified by a unique number called a Machine Access Code (MAC) address. You can instruct your Wi-Fi base station to allow access to only certain computer MAC addresses that belong to you. Your base station settings will allow you to type in the addresses of each MAC address you want to allow on your Wi-Fi network. This is a slightly more labor-intensive task but it can be very effective since MAC addresses are hard to guess. Use this approach in combination with the two tips above or on its own.

• Don't Broadcast Your SSID: This is by far the easiest way to prevent someone from accessing your Wi-Fi network -- but it's far from secure. By default, all Wi-Fi base stations broadcast their presence -- known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID) -- to anyone within range. You can reconfigure the base station to not broadcast the SSID -- somewhat like a stealth mode. However, if a stranger already knows the name of your Wi-Fi network they can still gain access. Nevertheless, this tactic will keep out most random passersby.

• Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to Secure All of Your Wi-Fi Transmissions: A VPN is an advanced networking feature. It is a technology that creates a tunnel between your computer and the network server. Many corporate networks have VPNs to protect transmissions. If you are accessing your work files or email using a Wi-Fi network, make sure your office network administrator has created a VPN for those transmissions. To learn more about Virtual Private Networks. To learn more about Virtual Private Networks see The Shmoo Group.