How to secure your Wi-Fi network at home ?

How to secure your Wi-Fi network at home ?

This article helps you to secure your house’s Wi-Fi network (i.e) 802.11 b/g/n Wireless home network.

Securing a Wireless Network becomes more important since there is always a risk that your neighbors may borrow your internet connection or can even access your files and check up on what are you doing. Other than this, there are also risks of hackers to upload any illegal materials just by breaking your Wireless Network.

credit: third party image reference

Thus, it is always good to be aware of the tips of securing your Wireless Network at home.

So let’s check up the steps one by one:

Connect your router via your browser, by inputting a Gateway IP address:

credit: third party image reference

To find your own Gateway IP address and connect it to the Windows.

Check on the following steps:

1. Click Start->Run->type “cmd”->Click “Enter”

2. In the command prompt window opens, type ‘ ipconfig/all’ and hit ‘ Enter’.

3. Locate the line labeled “Gateway” and make note of the number that appears on your screen. It will look similar to ‘192.168.1.1’.

4. Open your browser

5. Enter the Gateway IP address into the address bar and just click on ‘enter’.

Disable your ‘SSID Broadcast’:

This is a very important point. Please disable ‘SSID Broadcast’ of your access point or your router. This is because most of the Wireless Access Points(APs) and routers automatically transfer their network name(SSID) into open air at regular intervals. This feature allows the clients to dynamically find and roam between WLAN. The SSID( or Wireless Network name) of your Wireless Router is usually predefined as “default” or the brand name of the router. It is better to change the name of router as it will make more obvious to others to know which network they are connecting to.

In a home Wi-fi network, roaming is largely unneccasary and SSID broadcast feature serves no useful purpose. So it is better to disable to serve your Wireless network from the hackers or other unwanted invaders.

Filter MAC Address:

Just like every computer has a unique IP address every Wireless device like WI-Fi enabled Mobile phone, Laptop will have a unique Address called as MAC Address. To make your Wireless device to be protective, you can add your MAC addresses of all your devices to your Wireless Router settings so that only specified devices can connect to your Network.

You can also enable the MAC address filtering on your Access Point or your Router.

Reduce the range of the Wireless Signal:



credit: third party image reference

If your Wi-Fi network has a high range but you are staying in a small studio apartment, you can consider decreasing the signal range by either changing the mode of your router to 802.11g or by using different wireless channel.

Upgrade your router’s firmware:

It is a healthy habit to check the manufacturer’s site occasionally to make sure that your router is running the latest firmware. Using your router’s dashboard at 192.168.* you can find out the existing version of firmware of your router.

Often check who is connected to your Wireless Network:

If you often suspect that someone may be using your network then you can check it using Airsnare which will look for the unexpected MAC addresses coming your way.

Other alternative way of checking the users of your network is opening the administration page and look for DHCP client’s table.

If you leave your place for longer period, it is better to completely shut down the router which will save you from other invaders and also save electricity.

If you really want any friend’s device to be connected to your network, then just add his/her own MAC address to your router and remove that from the router settings as soon as he/she leaves the place.

Disable Remote login:

Most of the users will be having the most familiar username such as Admin, Administrator etc. This will be very easy for the virus/worm to crack the password if the username is familiar. Thus, choose a distinct username and password and disable the Remote login option which allows you to use the network from anywhere in the world.

To be safe and secured better disable the Remote Access option in your router. To do this, open your router’s web interface and look for the “Remote Access” or “Remote Administrator” or “Remote Management” feature. Ensure that it is disabled. In most of the routers it is disabled by default.

Disable UpnP (Universal Plug and Play):

Using Universal Plug and Play, an application can automatically forward a port on your router, saving you the hassle of forwarding the ports manually. Nowadays many UpNp flaws are found in consumer routers. Millions of Consumer routers respond to the UpNp requests from the internet, allowing attackers on the internet to remotely configure your router.

To avoid UpNp problems, it is better to disable UpNp settings in the router via its web interface.

Thus, remember to follow all the steps to make your router and Wireless network a more secured and peaceful network.