Wireless Network Security Setup Guide

Just a few years ago I was clueless about why I should secure my wireless network. I didn’t care if other people used my wireless signal to surf the internet, and I thought it was too much hassle to figure out how to encrypt my network. What I didn’t realize, is that computer criminals rely on people like me to carry out their crimes. All they had to do was sit outside of my house and run some nifty software while they collected all of my personal data and all that it cost them was gas and time. It took me getting my credit card number stolen and my credit rating destroyed before I finally decided to take network security and the security of my data seriously. I hope this story isn’t too familiar to any of you out there but if it is I have just the guide for you.

Recently I was asked by the wonderful staff here at TechwareLabs to write a little guide on securing your home network, and explain a little bit of the techno-babble associated with network security encryption. I hope this guide finds you well and saves you from the mistakes so many like myself make. We will make this guide as easy to understand as possible so that everyone from the novice to the expert can tighten down the latches on their home and business security.

If you don’t think you have the time to secure your network all you have to remember is that it only takes one penetration of your data to cost you anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Getting ready to contact your credit card companies and maybe even a lawyer to start rebuilding your credit. We hope you aren’t planning on buying anything on credit any time soon.
First, let’s take a look at the most common hardware that consumers use to create wireless networks for their homes and small businesses. Knowing what you have is the first step to locking down unauthorized access.