Wi-Fi Network is one of the commonest entry-point for hackers and they can use it to get inside your network and steal your data without you having any idea about it and the bad thing about it that all of this can be done wirelessly and the hacker won’t even have to do anything physically to steal your data. Everyone secure their Wi-Fi network using a passphrase, but there is a lot more to securing your Wi-Fi Network than just setting a simple passphrase. Even with a simple passphrase, the can gain access to your network.
How To Protect Your WiFi Network?
You should try to make your Wi-Fi Network even more secure so, that it impedes the entry of the hackers. Here are a few tips that will help you in protecting your Wi-Fi Network:
Using a strong and complex passphrase
A common mistake that most people make is that when they set up a new router, then by default it already has a passphrase set and they don’t bother to change. This can cause trouble for them as default passphrases can easily be guessed by the hacking tools and hence hackers are able to gain access into your wireless network.
You should set such a strong and complex passphrase as the password for your Wi-Fi Network that contains alphabets, digits, and special characters. These complex passphrases aren’t easily crackable and hence your Wi-Fi network remains secure.
Changing the SSID
SSID, in layman terms, is the name of your Wi-Fi Networks. It can tell what kind of person owns a Wi-Fi network. If the SSID of the wireless network is simple like TP-Link or any other default name, then it means that user doesn’t have much knowledge about how things work and it makes it easier for hackers to figure out the best way to attack your network.
You should change the SSID of the wireless network to something custom and if possible then hide your wireless network by turning off the Wireless Broadcasting. This will require you or anyone else to connect to the network manually by entering the proper credentials, but it will impede the entry of the hackers.
Setting up a Guest Network
A guest network is meant for the purpose to make your Wi-Fi network secure. By creating a guest network, you give the internet access to the guests, but it has an advantage that the guest users won’t know the passphrase of your wireless network and if there was something to affect the device of the guest users then it won’t be able to cross the barrier and affect your Wi-Fi network.
Also, if their device was to get compromised then no data will accessible through the guest network and a passphrase can be set up on the guest network to make it even more secure.
Setting up a Firewall
A firewall is a barrier that controls the traffic going in and out of your network. A firewall can be set up on both the level of the wireless router (hardware) and also on the level on your PC (software). A firewall on your wireless router will regulate all types of incoming and outgoing traffic. It will block all the traffic that it considers as harmful or bad for your network.
Firewalls use packet filtering and filter the packets of the data by looking at the header of the packets. The information between the incoming packet and pre-defined rules is compared and governed whether it is to be allowed or discarded.
You can set up a firewall on your router and then configure it according to the level of security that you need. By default, the firewall is set on a moderate level of security.
Setting up MAC Filtering
MAC Filtering is another way by which you can protect your Wi-Fi Network. It is a feature that is found in most of the Wi-Fi routers nowadays. The basic principle of MAC FIltering is to filter out the devices on the basis of their MAC Address. Once you filter out the devices on the basis of their MAC Address, only the whitelisted devices will be able to connect your Wi-Fi Network, others will be blocked from doing so.