Learn to Secure Your Own Linksys Wireless Router

Hiring someone to come set up that new Linksys Router you bought can cost more then the unit itself! No longer do you need to contact your local Computer "guru" so they can charge you money out the wazoo to install the simple Linksys router when you can learn to do it all yourself.

If you have already setup your Linksys router then it is time to secure it. We will give you a few tips that you can use to keep the hackers and war drivers (People who search for unsecured networks to do malicious things to the owners).

First, login your Linksys Wireless Router by typing your Routers IP into the url bar, the default IP adDress is 192.168.1.1, and the username/password should be admin/admin.

Now, if you could login to your Router via the default IP (192.168.1.1), then that will be the first thing we change, as this is pretty much default on all routers, and will be the IP the war drivers will enter first. Go to Setup, then Basic Setup tab and under "Local IP AdDress". So, change the IP to anything you want, for ours we'll be using 201.104.1.1. The IP that you enter should be easy for you to remember in case you'll ever need to get back into to the router.

The second thing we are going to look at is the "Maximum Number of DHCP Users", this too is found under the Basic Setup tab. If you are in a home/small business and you know the number of devices (Including cellphones that have WIFI access, gaming consoles, PDAs, etc) then you can change this number to that. The default is 50, so it means it will allow for 50 users to connect to your router. If you know that you'll have only 10 at any given time then you would only need to enter the number 10. Now save these settings and lets move on.

The third thing we are going to change is the router's password to manage the configurations of the router. Once again the "admin" password will be the first thing the war driver tries to get into your router. Go to your Administration then ManageMent. Change the password to access the router's settings to something that you can remember and is a little difficult to guess (Something like your last name would not suffice).

These are easy security tips to keep your router secure.

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