WiFi networks without any kind of security measures set up within them are more dangerous than you can possibly fathom. An open WiFi network is like an unguarded treasury. Let alone unrestricted bandwidth usage by strangers, your private data like email, documents, pictures, etc can be at stake. Recently, Google apologized for collecting private data samples over unsecured WiFi networks. Here we have a basic 3-step guide to a robust and secured WiFi network.

» Hiding the SSID

Service Set IDentifier is a public name of your wireless network which can be set by the user. Wireless routers, by default, broadcast their SSIDs which are identified by the WiFi modules present in the WiFi enabled devices. All we have to do is to make the wireless network hidden i.e. not to broadcast the SSID.

This can be done by logging into the router’s control panel. The following screenshot shows how one can disable the SSID broadcast in NetGear Wireless G 54 router. These settings are more or less the same for most browsers. So look for ‘Advanced Wireless Settings’ or something along those lines where you can enable/disable the SSID broadcast.

Once you disable the SSID broadcast, your wireless network will be hidden. You will have to manually enter the SSID of the network on your WiFi device to get connected. So it will be a hard time for strangers to guess the SSID or even know the possibility of an available wireless network in the first place.

However, smart WiFi sniffer software can detect hidden networks and can even get hold of their SSIDs by injecting malicious packets. Hence, it’s necessary that you enable WEP/WPA password protection.

» Enabling WEP/WPA protection

Every wireless router has a security options panel that lets you set a password for the WiFi network. In NetGear routers you get WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), WPA (WiFi Protected Access) and their variations to secure your wireless network. These protocols implement high quality encryption algorithms to protect your password. Set your passphrase and remember it for logging into the WiFi network.

» Allow access based on MAC address

For those who don’t know, a MAC address is a unique identifier for the network card of your computer or a device, commonly referred to as the ‘physical’ address. For the MAC address based security, you need to punch in this physical address in the ‘Allowed’ list of devices in the router’s configuration.

To find your MAC address, open ‘Command Prompt’ (Start > Run > Type ‘cmd.exe’. Press Enter). Then type ‘ipconfig’ and press enter. If you’re running Linux or Mac OS X, you need to type ‘ifconfig’ in the Terminal window. Here, look for the ‘Physical address’ entry.

Alternatively, you can go to the network connections, right click the Wireless Network adapter, select ‘Status’ and then in the window that appears, click the ‘Details’ button. A new window will appear where you can find the Physical Address.

Now you need to setup the access list in your wireless router. In NetGear routers, in the ‘Advanced Wireless Settings’ click the ‘Setup Access List’ button. Again, these settings are more or less same in most routers so I don’t think it will be difficult to find them. Enter the MAC addresses (physical addresses) of only the devices your need to provide connectivity. Any device not included in this list won’t be able to connect with the wireless network.

The MAC address based security is extremely good. However, nothing beats the combination of all the three mentioned above. This concludes the our basic 3 step guide to a secured WiFi network. Hope you liked the post. Do subscribe to our  feeds and also join us on Facebook and Twitter.