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Make your wireless LAN secure, or else...

If you will follow these simple guidelines for a home network wireless setup you will enjoy safe cordless access to the world. If you don't, the world could have free cordless access to your private information.

Although wireless networks operate under a security standard, namely WEP, which encrypts your data, it is not at all unbeatable.

A persistent intruder will be able to crack the encryption code of your wireless connection soon. To have a secure wireless local area network or wireless LAN (WLAN, for really short), you need to take a combination of several preventative steps.

I use a simple D-Link router with the modem I got from my high speed internet service provider.

My wireless network setup is very similar to this one in the picture. I have a printer networked to the DI-714P+ router, a few hard-wired PC's and a laptop with a wireless interface.

This is the typical home network setup most people use - but how safe is this arrangement? It all depends on the features of the devices and the settings you configure.

First, some definitions

Wireless LAN - Of course, you know what wireless means. LAN is short for Local Area Network. It is a network of computers and other devices within a geographically confined area such as in the same building, a campus, an office park, or a home.

So a wireless LAN is one such network connection without wires (of course). How? Similar to how your radio is "connected" to a transmitting station without any physical connection.

Router - A device used to allow communication between networks. In my case, my home network communicates with computers on the Internet.

Here is a picture of what my home network wireless (and wired) setup looks like.

How to Make Your Wireless Router Setup Secure

It took me just minutes to setup my wireless LAN and had it working, but I had to make sure that my neighbors couldn't get in on the action.

If you want to secure your wireless Internet connection, make sure you observe the following:

Get a wireless router or access point that has a built-in firewall. A good wireless router for your home or small office network will use Network Address Translation (NAT) technology. NAT will allow you to...

• hide your network IP addresses from the outside network

• use several unique IP addresses internally without causing conflicts with proprietary IP addresses from the outside

• expose ONLY your router to the Internet, while the  arrangement of your network of computers in your home, office, or organization remains effectively 'hidden'.

This is effectively having a your network quarantined from the outside, to prevent outside intruders AND to regulate contacts from your network to the outside.

Your wireless router should allow you to use 64, 128, or 256-bit WEP encryption if you choose to do so. You may find that you sacrifice a little connection speed for security when you turn on encryption features. 128-bit encryption is sufficient protection for almost anything you will do.

Turn off the broadcast of the SSID of your wireless connection. Configure your wireless connection's service set identifier in each client computer's network connection and turn off its broadcast in the router's configuration program.

Specify the computers that will connect to your wireless network by their MAC or hardware addresses. This will prevent unknown clients from connecting to your network. (There is no ride if you don't have a ticket!)

Further, secure your wireless LAN by blocking or discarding ping requests from the WAN (or Internet) side.

Follow the above guidelines and  you should be almost hacker proof... although not quite. Hackers come up with new tricks everyday. But at least you will not just let them have an easy ride on your side of the superhighway.

Find Wireless LAN components for your Networking needs at TigerDirect.

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Take Wireless Network Security Seriously

Wi-fi networks are notorious for breaches. It is not uncommon for spammers to use your wireless network to send out their email messages. You have to take serious steps to secure your wireless network.