Secure your wireless network
December 30th, 2006
I’ve finally joined the rest of the world and made the move to a wireless router.
Since I was very pleased with my good old D-Link router, I’ve decided to buy a D-Link DI-624 Wireless router.
It’s quite popular, supports “super” 802.11g (up to 108Mbps) and is pretty cheap as well.
The installation was real quick and simple and I immediately researched how to best secure my network.
I live in a 100 apartment building and I wouldn’t want my neighbors sharing my bandwidth.
After some serious research, here is the exact guide for securing your network:
1. Change router password - This is the first and the most obvious step. Always change the admin password on your router’s Web console. The default passwords are well known and can be used to easily gain control of your router, and network.
2. Change default router IP address and subnet - As with the item above, it’s always a good idea to change the default settings your router comes with. Changing the default IP address and subnet mask will make it harder for an attacker to gain access to your router and network.
3. Disable SSID Broadcast - The SSID is simply the name you give your wireless network. This name is what appears in the list of “Available wireless networks” under Windows.
Security-wise, obviously the best action is to disable the broadcasting of the SSID. This will mean that regular Windows software will not pick-up and display your network as an available option.
4. Use WPA2 - You must protect your wireless traffic with an encryption standard. The most common one is WEP. WEP is completely insecure and can be broken in a few minutes with the right tool.
Opt to use WPA, and even better WPA2 if your router supports it.
In order to add WPA2 support to your Windows XP computer, download and install the Microsoft WPA2 Support Patch.
6. Use a difficult passphrase - Finally, the passphrase that WPA2 uses must be a complicated one and not one that is easily guessed.
But this one is a no brainer right..? 
That’s it. With these steps you can be pretty sure you are safe in your wireless domain.
Let me know if you know of other steps that should be taken that can improve your wireless security.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:47
[...] A little more than a year ago I’ve published an article titled “Secure your wireless network” with some basic rules about how to protect your wireless network. [...]