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Tips to Secure Your Home Wi-Fi Network

Date: Jul 10, 2009.

Article Information

Use Encryption Preferably WPA2
Use Strong Encryption Keys
Save Your Encryption Key
Dont Connect to Other Networks
Periodically Check Your Network Profile List and Settings
Use a Firewall
Keep Hardware Updated
Grant Access Only to Your Computers and Devices
Hide Your Network

Article Description

Going wireless at home allows us freedom, but it also opens up more possibilities of allowing uninvited users like our neighbors or hackers. Eric Geier, author of Wi-Fi Hotspots: Setting Up Public Wireless Internet Access, points out important steps beyond encryption to secure your home Wi-Fi network.

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Periodically Check Your Network Profile List and Settings

Since any network you connect to can be added to your network profiles or preferred list, either by you or automatically by Windows, you should periodically check for other networks and remove them from the list. This is because Windows might try to automatically connect up with that other network sometime. As discussed in the previous tip, this compromises any shared files on the computer. You also want to make sure you don’t have the network settings on any Windows XP computers set to automatically connect to any available network.

6. Use a Firewall | Next Section Previous Section

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