Most people, when setting up their wireless network, think setting a new password is the only important task to make their network secure.
To keep your information and home network safe from hackers out there, you should secure your router
The foundation to keep your router secure is to invest in a high-quality device that comes with inbuilt security controls.
Your home network is the backbone of all your online activity, through which you connect to the Internet. If something should happen to your network, you could lose access to your files and documents. Dangerous threats are hanging out in cyberspace, just waiting for your network with open arms.
To protect yourself, you need to take precautions and implement security measures so that you can rest assured that your sensitive data is safe. That’s where we come in – we’re going to show you 10 simple ways to secure your home network.
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This allows you to configure a firewall, VPN, parental controls, and even DNS filtering from the router. We’ll go into more detail about this later in the article.
As you read on, you will learn a lot of easy ways to secure your home network and make it hackproof.
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How To Protect Your Wi-Fi Router From Hackers
We all know that hackers are lurking in the dark corners of the internet trying to steal our passwords, account information, and other private data. It can be hard to think about it but it’s necessary to protect yourself.
Hackers are out there looking for ways to steal your data. And unfortunately, most of the time they’re successful. This is especially true if you have an unsecured home Wi-Fi network. If you want to keep your data private and secure, this article will teach you how to protect your Wi-Fi router from hackers.
1. Change Default Username and Password
If you have a wireless network, you may want to change the default username and password on your router. By default, many routers come with a username and password that is readily available online. If you do not change your default password when setting up your router, it is very easy for someone to access your network.
This makes it possible for someone sitting outside of your home or office, using an inexpensive wireless device, to view all of the traffic passing across your network, including passwords, credit card numbers, emails, and instant messages (IMs).
The first thing you should do when you get a new router is to change the default username and password to something more secure.
You should create a username that is unique to you in any way. You should pair it with a strong password that contains letters, numbers, and symbols. Hackers will find it more difficult to crack.
2. Strengthen Your Wi-Fi Encryption
When you use WPA-2 encryption, your Wi-Fi network is much more secure than it would be with an older type of encryption like WEP, Wired Equivalent Privacy.
Now that you have set up a new username and password for your Wi-Fi. The next order of business to secure your network is to strengthen your Wi-Fi encryption.
WPA-2 is considered more secure than WEP for several reasons: It has better passwords, it’s harder to crack using software and it’s harder to crack using hardware or motherboard hack tools.
The best type of encryption to use for your home network is WPA2, it’s much more secure than for example WEP or WPA. To make sure you’re utilizing it, go to your wireless router’s control page and check the WiFi settings for WPA2 (it may be labeled WPA2-PSK or WPA2-Personal on your WiFi router). When WPA2 is activated, all data transferred over the wireless channel between your wireless devices (computers, phones) and the router is encrypted.
WPA2 may not be compatible if you have older devices. So it’s important to upgrade your home devices for enhanced security and performance.
3. Use A VPN
VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”. It allows you to establish a protected connection when using public networks. VPNs hide your online identity. This makes it more difficult for hackers to track your activities online and steal your data.
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Tunneling a connection through an encrypted VPN provides you with an anonymous IP address so that no one can see what you’re doing online. It also encrypts your data so that even if someone manages to intercept your information, they won’t be able to read it. ISPs won’t be able to monitor your activity or limit your bandwidth.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service that encrypts all of your internet traffic and routes it through a server in another location. By doing so, you can pretend to be anywhere in the world and access region-locked content.
A VPN is great for keeping your browsing history private, but it also protects against several other threats. Since I’m writing this on WordPress, I’ll use that as an example: when I post to my blog, the website will see my computer’s IP address. Using a VPN would change that address to that of my VPN’s US server, making me seem like I’m posting from America rather than Nigeria.
In general, if any application or service uses your computer’s IP address to track you or your behavior, using a VPN will throw them off. That’s why it’s not just for privacy: it also protects you from being tracked by advertisers, governments, and others who are interested in your activity online.
A VPN will also change your IP address. It appears that you are using your computer from another location. hiding your home address. You can use it on any device you own like desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet.
Setting up a VPN should be simple no matter what sort of device you use. Typically, you’ll need to download the app, complete the installation procedure (which normally takes a few clicks), and log in with your VPN account. Then you decide the nation you want to connect with. Look through the list of possible regions on your VPN and select the one you require.
4. Install a Network Firewall
To start with, you will want to make sure your wireless encryption is enabled and you have a strong password. This will prevent your neighbors from checking out the contents of your computer. Do not use “password” or “admin” or some other common word as the key.
You can do this by going into your wireless router settings and choosing better encryption like WPA2, WPA, or even WEP. If you do not know how to change your encryption, refer to the manufacture’s manual for instructions.
A firewall acts as a gatekeeper to the internet. It restricts what flows in and out of your network, keeping the bad stuff out, and letting the good stuff in. The firewall is one of the most important components of a home network security plan. Your firewall must be up-to-date with the latest updates, and it should be turned on.
New Wi-Fi routers contain a built-in firewall. It helps keep hackers from stealing your personal information.
Make sure to activate it when setting up your router for the first time. To set up, you access your router’s configuration page, then locate an entry labeled firewall, SPI firewall, or something similar. You select (enable), then select (save), and then (apply). after you select (apply), your router will likely state that it is going to reboot to apply the settings.
A router firewall will add another layer of protection to your home security.
5. Hide Your IP Address Behind a Proxy
A proxy is just a computer that sits between your computer and the Internet. It accepts the connection coming from your computer and sends it to the Internet, and accepts connections coming from the Internet and sends them to your computer.
Having your IP address public on the internet can lead to massive problems. Hackers can use your IP address to track your location. They can steal your personal information and steal your money.
Many of you may have heard about how an IP address can be used to track your location and habits. It’s true! And it’s bad! So let’s fix that problem by hiding your IP address behind a proxy server.
A proxy server is a computer that does nothing but forward requests to the Internet to other computers. Most of the time, proxies are used for caching web pages and images, since it saves bandwidth if you let one computer retrieve a page from the Internet and then distribute it to everyone else.
I use ProxyScape to protect myself and my privacy when visiting the web. This service has a reliable data center proxy, its own dedicated proxy pool, an internet speed of 1GBPs, unlimited bandwidth, and a super affordable price.
To prevent that from happening you should use proxies to hide your real IP address. ISP proxies are IP addresses that originate from service providers and are stored in a data center. These IPs appear to be more residential than typical datacenter IPs, allowing them to work on more sites while also making them more difficult to discover and prohibit.
6. Enable MAC Address Filtering
MAC address filtering is the most basic and simple security measure for a home network. A MAC address is a 12 digit hexadecimal number (0-9 and A-F) that is usually printed on the bottom of your router.
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MAC filtering allows you to specify a list of approved devices that can connect to your Wi-Fi network. MAC stands for Media Access Control, and it is a unique identifier assigned to a piece of networking hardware.
MAC filtering is not a security setting, it is a convenience feature to allow you to connect only specified devices to your wireless router. It’s easy to set up and takes very little time. This will allow you to connect with any device, but only those you specify.
To keep knowledge of which devices can connect to your Wi-Fi network, you should be enabling the MAC address filtering option. A MAC address is a one-of-a-kind identification that is assigned to a network interface controller.
You enable MAC address filtering by going to your gateway settings, then entering the modem access code found on the side of your gateway, then you select (Home Network > Mac Filtering). From the MAC filtering type dropdown, select (Enabled). In MAC filter entry, either Select your devices’ MAC addresses or enter the MAC address in the manual entry field.
If you have more than one computer in your home network, you can use this guide for setting up MAC filtering, but only one computer will be able to access the Internet at any given time.
By enabling it, only specific MAC addresses will be able to access the network, which will make it impossible for hackers to access your network.
7. Turn off Your Router Before Heading Out
This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people leave them plugged in, even when they’re not using it. The only time a router should be plugged in is when it’s transferring data to and from the Internet.
It may seem like a good idea to have the router running 24 hours a day to always be available for your friends and family over Wi-Fi. The problem with this is that when you are not at home, someone else potentially could be.
The best and easiest way to secure your wireless network is to simply turn off the router when you are not around. This will make sure that no one can get on your network without the password being entered by someone inside the home.
One of the easiest and most forgotten ways to secure your home network is to turn the router off when you’re not home. You should Turn off your Wi-Fi while you’re away. It reduces the chances of hackers breaking into your home network while you’re gone.
8. Disable Remote Administration
I’ll start by saying that this is not an attempt to scare you. Just the opposite: I want to make sure that you feel secure in your home network. I know, it sounds silly to say that, but I have a friend who’s been hacked twice in the past year, and I’m still more concerned about his security than he is.
Hackers can also get access to a home network connection if they go through the router’s remote management feature. Anyone within a reasonable distance of your home can access and change your Wi-Fi settings via remote administration.
But, unless you need admin-level access to your router from somewhere else, you should disable this option. You can turn these functions off by going to the router’s settings panel and hitting the deactivate button.
If your router has a Remote Administration feature, then change its name and password. If you have access to your router’s configuration, you can do this yourself. If you don’t know how to do it, contact your Internet Service Provider or whoever set up your home Wi-Fi network.
You can see if your router has a Remote Administration feature by looking for something like “Remote Management” or “Remote Access” in its configuration screen. The exact wording may vary depending on the brand and model of your router.
9. Update Your Router Software
If you’ve connected your home network to the Internet, you’ve opened up a potential backdoor into your system. Your computer could be vulnerable to malicious hackers, who have the potential to access your private information and files. One way to prevent this is by updating your router’s software.
Software updates are one of the most critical tasks you can take to strengthen the security of your home networks. The key is to perform regular software updates.
Each time the manufacturer releases a new version of the software, it includes patches for any flaws that have been discovered since the previous version.
Software updates usually include many essential things, like security fixes for newfound threats and vulnerabilities. Most current software applications will check for newly published updates automatically. This will add another layer of protection to your home network.
You can check if a new version of your router’s firmware is available by visiting the manufacturer’s website. Log in using your router’s default IP address and username, then check the Downloads section for a link to the latest version. If you don’t know your router’s IP address or have trouble logging in to its web-based management console, consult its user manual.
10. Create A Home Guest Network
This is the best way to share your wifi connection with friends without giving out your password.
Conveniently, most modern routers have a feature called “Guest Networking” (or something similar), which lets you create this kind of separate network without spending any extra money on hardware.
If you want to make it impossible for guests to use your Internet connection without your permission, then all you need to do is change the Wi-Fi password or create a special network for friends and family.
If you want to make it more difficult, but still allow guests to access the Internet if they absolutely must, then you can create a home guest network that has its password. You can also restrict access to some things on your network, such as adult content and services, such as multiplayer gaming or Skype.
What are the 5 types of network security?
Network security encompasses various strategies and technologies to protect computer networks from unauthorized access, data breaches, and other cyber threats. The five primary types of network security are:
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Access Control: Access control is the practice of regulating who can access the network and what resources they can use. This includes user authentication, authorization, and access rights management.
Firewalls: Firewalls are security devices or software that act as a barrier between a trusted network and untrusted networks, such as the internet. They filter incoming and outgoing network traffic to prevent malicious or unauthorized access.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS): IDPSs monitor network traffic for suspicious or malicious activities. They can detect and prevent intrusions or cyberattacks, helping to maintain network integrity.
Encryption: Encryption ensures that data transmitted over the network is secured and cannot be intercepted or read by unauthorized parties. This includes methods like VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and secure socket layer (SSL) protocols.
Network Monitoring and Security Software: Network monitoring tools keep an eye on network traffic and can identify abnormal behavior or potential security threats. This can include antivirus software, anti-malware programs, and security information and event management (SIEM) systems.
The Internet is full of stories about people who have been hacked through their routers. Sometimes this happens because the router was misconfigured. Sometimes it occurs because the proprietor didn’t update the software that came with the router or installed some software from somewhere else instead.
For people who are concerned about the safety and security of their data, securing the home network should be a top priority for them. These steps can be quite beneficial even for those who are not very knowledgeable.
You will improve your home network security and avoid as many hackers as possible if you follow these tips to safeguard your wireless network and the devices connected to it.
Hi there, I'm Heaven. I'm an entrepreneur, blogger, and digital marketing enthusiast. When I'm not watching anime or learning something new from TikTok, I post and vlog about my incredible life experiences as a digital entrepreneur.
