How to Make Your Wireless Network (Wi-Fi) Hacker-Proof

Security has become second nature to people over the years, whether it be your home, car, or personal, clean. Our Computers are no exception to this, as digital thieves are lurking everywhere, and can be almost impossible to detect by the average Computer user. Preventing unauthorized access to your wireless home or business network (Wi-Fi) is an extremely important measure to take, as a hacker doesn't need to know you personally to target you, and they can be in a house or apartMent nearby, or even in a car parked on the street. Wi-Fi hackers have been known to drive around neighborhoods searching for wireless networks in people's homes, gain access through various unlocked doors in a wireless router's configuration, and then have a field daywith your information. In this article, we will go step by step through the different configurations of your wireless router that leave your network vulnerable, and what to change to make your network virtually hacker proof.

Step 1: The first thing that we have to do is login to our router's configuration utility. To do so, you must first figure out what your gateway's IP adDress is. You can do this by going to Start, Run and typing in > cmd. This will open a command prompt session of. In command prompt, type ' ipconfig ' without the quotations, and press enter. If done while connected to your network, this will return several different numbers. The one we need is listed as "Default Gateway". Take the IP adDress listed as "Default Gateway" and write it down, orcopy it. If you're not familiar with IP adDresses, it is a series of numbers separated by periods like this: 192.168.1.1 In fact, this particular IP address I just used as an example is the most common gateway, but yours may be listed as something different. Now, with this IP address copied, open a web browser such as internet explorer or Firefox, and paste or type the IP address, exactly as it shows into the address bar and press enter. This will bring up the login page for your router. If you know your login details, enter them here, if not, you will have to find the manufacturer's User ID and password for your router. You can find this in the manual that came with the router, or by going to the manufacturer's website and searching for the manual under the> router's model number (this can be found on a sticker on the back, side, or bottom of the router.) You can first try common ones like "admin" for the User ID, and password for the password, or "admin" for both User ID and password. If these don't work, refer to the manufacturer's manual for the User ID and password. If you set up your own User ID and password and forgot them, or the manufacturer's default User ID and password are not working, if other people in your home have access to the router or it had a previous owner, the default User ID and password may have been changed. In such a case you can reset them back to the defaults by pressing and holding the reset button on the back of the router for at least 5 seconds. Now you can login using the defaultUser ID and password set by the manufacturer.

Step 2: Change your User ID and password if they are set to the manufacturer's defaults. If someone gains access to your wireless network, they can easily log into your router's settings and change them to their liking.