Three Things You Should Know About Your Wireless Router

If you want to learn how you can secure your own wireless router, then there are a few important things you should be aware of. Actually, there are three things you should know: SSID, WEP/WPA and the MAC Address. Although that is not the end all be all of wireless networking, these three subjects should give you a good introduction to setting up a secure router in your home.

So let's look at these three in detail to give you a good foundation for understanding wireless networking.

MAC Address

The MAC Address, or Media Access Control address (aka physical address) is the unique identifier of your network adapter. It includes a manufacturer id and unique number. A wireless router will allow (by default) most addresses that will try to connect to your nic. Or you can set it up to only allow the addresses that you tell it to allow. To do this you just deny access to any ip address that is not on the list you tell it.

If you're looking for what your MAC Address is, you should go to a DOS window and type in the following command at the command prompt: IPCONFIG or IPCONFIG/ALL. From there you can locate the hexadecimal digits (should be 12) that make up the MAC.

SSID

The SSID is primarily how hackers get access to your wireless network. When you first set up your SSID, you should change the name and the password for security reasons. Set up your user name as something that you can remember easily, but that is not obvious. Maybe the name of an old pet or the mascot of your favorite sports team. Remember the key is to keep the hackers out and your safe network in.

WEP/WPA

WEP and WPA are two protocols that are used in wireless networking. Wired Equivalent Privacy, is pretty much outdated and can be hacked fairly easily. Wifi Protected Access is the newer protocol and is a hundred times stronger, with WPA2 being the latest and greatest thing on the market.

So when you set up our protocol you should do it in this order: WPA2(if you have it), WPA, WEP. Only use WEP is that's all you have, but in today's market most routers come standard with at least WPA.

This should help you get started on you r way to being a wireless router expert.