Are Strangers using your Wireless Connection?

You just setup a wireless connection at your office and it was easy. Just take the Wireless Access Point out of the box and hook it up. Add a wireless client adaptor to your PC or laptop and Voila! It works. It really is almost this simple, but is your new wireless network secure? Is someone you don’t know stealing your internet connection?

There are a number of ways to secure a wireless network that are included with the Wireless Access Point at no extra cost. The problem is that they are all turned OFF by default. The most common method is to use WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). This involves creating a key on the Access Point that must also be entered in the wireless client in order for a PC or laptop to connect to the network. A newer form of this is called WPA. Another common method is MAC filtering. What the heck is a MAC? MAC or Media Access Control is an address burned into wired or wireless network card so that it can be uniquely identified. Unlike an IP address, this is burned into the actual card so it cannot be changed. MAC filtering will allow you to specify exactly who may or may not access your wireless network.

One more tip. When you turn on your Wireless Access Point your network will be named something really clever like Linksys or Netgear. This name is called the SSID (Service Set Identifier). The two best things you can do with an SSID is to first rename it to something else. Second, turn the SSID broadcast off. This way strangers not only can’t see your network, they can’t guess it very easily, either.

These suggestions are not everything that can be done to secure your Wireless LAN (WLAN), but offer a good start. Your local IT professional should be able to help you plan and implement a solution that is right for you.



Until next month…….Safe Computing!

EntecSystems
http://www.entecva.com/
entecva.blogspot.com
Phone 800-716-2544