Security has become second nature to people over the years, whether it be your home, car, or personal belongings. 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 parked in a car 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 day with 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 session of command prompt. 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, or copy 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 default User 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.

Step 3: Change your SSID. Your SSID is the name that you see for your wireless network when you search for open networks using a Wi-Fi enabled device. If the SSID is set to the manufacturer’s default, anyone searching for an open network nearby can see yours, and with a little searching on the internet they can figure out the model number of your router which will help them gain access to your router’s settings.

Step 4: Disable broadcasting of your SSID. Broadcasting of an SSID is simply how when you search for open networks in an area, the names of open networks will show on your device. If you disable broadcasting of your SSID, when people search for open networks, yours will not even show up, so essentially, they will not know your wireless network even exists. You will still be able to connect to your network by typing your SSID into your Wi-Fi enabled devices manually.

Step 5: If available, enable WPA2 encryption. If WPA2 is not available, enable WPA encryption. If neither is available and only WEP is available, search your router’s manual or website for information on updating your router’s firmware. An update for your router may include support for WPA or WPA2 encryption. If no update is available to your current router, you may consider buying a new router as yours is likely very outdated. WPA2 encryption is ideal as it is much more secure than WPA and especially WEP.

Step 6: Setup a Pre-Shared Key or PSK or Network Key. Whatever your router calls it, this is the “password” to your network. This is not to be confused with the password that we changed in step 2 for your router. Your Pre-Shared Key that you setup should be impossible to guess, and should include uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. It is very important to include all of these to make it almost impossible to crack, but don’t make it so long that it takes you 5 minutes to enter it into every device. If it is difficult to remember, you can always look it up whenever you need by logging into your router’s settings again.

Step 7: Enable MAC Address Filtering or MAC Address Authentication. This step is optional, and should only be performed if you do not have visitors that use your Wi-Fi, or if the devices that use your Wi-Fi are consistently the same devices. A MAC Address is basically an ID that every internet or network enabled device has that looks something like this: 00:20:e0:00:41:00. Every device ever created has a unique MAC address so that they can be properly identified on a network as an individual. Using MAC Address Filtering or Authentication only allows the specific devices that you select to connect to your wireless network. Any outside devices will not be able to connect because their MAC Address will not be in the list you create of allowable devices. To add your Wi-Fi enabled devices to access list, you first need to obtain the MAC Address of each device. For computers and laptops, you can simply go to Start > Run and type ‘CMD’ without quotation marks. This will bring up a Command Prompt window. Then type in ‘ipconfig /all’ without quotation marks, and press enter. Something saying “Physical Address” should be listed somewhere near the top. Next to it you will see your computer’s MAC Address. It may be listed with hyphens in between every 2 characters instead of colons like in the example above. This is okay, just make sure when you enter the MAC Address into the access list that you do it in the format required by your router, so you may need to change all hyphens into colons. Do this for all computers connecting your wireless network. For devices such as iPods, iPads, cell phones, etc., you will have to search for your device information most likely in the Setup menu (or it may be somewhere else depending on the device). Here, if it is a Wi-Fi enabled device, you will find the MAC Address. Do this for all non-computer devices that connect to your wireless network and add them each to your access list. Don’t forget, every time you purchase a new device or someone visits and wants to use your Wi-Fi, you will have to perform this step.

It is important to perform all steps to properly secure your wireless network, except for the optional step #7. There are other security measures that can be implemented, however the above steps are the most important, and most necessary to prevent unauthorized access to your wireless network. If you completed all of the steps listed in this tutorial, you can feel confident that your wireless network is now virtually impenetrable.

Source by Jesse Pierce

Computer networking is the connecting of two or more computers that allows them to share resources. It can be done between computers in a home, in a business, across a corporation, and even internationally. It can equally be defined as a method of connecting two or more computer systems together including printers and other devices.

The benefits of networking are considerable, even on a network of only three systems. In computer networking there was never a truer statement than that this is a case of advantages experienced being far greater than the sum of the parts. PC networking is, as a consequence, a rapidly evolving discipline with many exciting opportunities. Challenges that arise in networking and particularly in the Internet tend to be truly global and have the potential to impact upon millions of users.

One huge and growing impact is Internet shopping. Shopping online has grown over the last 10 years to become a huge market, and if a sales business does not today incorporate this technology use they will fall behind their competitors.

But computer networking is also producing much more subtle uses within our societies. For example, Internet technologies can be deployed to favorably condition empathic response in those who have offended against community norms out of a lack of appreciation for the effects that their criminal behavior has on other people. In other words Internet linked devices can track home prisoners to maintain their behavior, in ways that 20 years ago had not even entered the heads of science-fiction writers, to the benefit of society as a whole.

Wireless Internet technology, is the development, also known as WiFi, which is really taking over the way people access the Internet and it has become widely popular in a very short space of time. One reason for this is it allows individuals to access the Internet via a network hot spots, while traveling without the use of cables or wires. In short it releases us from the tyranny of wires and plugs!

Wireless networks are now widely used including Internet-enabled mobile phones with cellular phone networks and, within buildings, wireless networks such as Bluetooth. These are in addition to the site networks used by academic institutions and large businesses. Wireless routers must be configured immediately for security right after you set up your network. It is important to emphasis that wireless can easily also mean insecure unless users are careful to set systems up correctly.

So, do this right away, as soon as you have got the device running. You need to set a new password for the router and limit access to only those computers on your wireless network.

Informally defined computer networking is the foundation of the Internet. The Internet itself is easier to understand when defined as the set of users, enterprises,and content providers that are interconnected by Internet Service Providers (ISP).

From an engineering standpoint, and please forgive me for being rather techie here; the Internet is the set of subnets, and aggregates of subnets, which share the registered IP address space and exchange information about the reachability of those IP addresses using the Border Gateway Protocol . Computer networks may also be classified according to the network layer at which they operate according to some basic reference models that are considered to be standards in the industry such as the seven layer OSI reference model and the five layer TCP/IP model.

Companies that use their own computer networks must administer complex systems which, once deployed, become vital tools for the continued efficiency of their operations. They employ administrators who focus primarily on the day-to-day operation of networks, while network engineers deal primarily with system upgrades, security testing, and so on.

Given the highly technological nature of computer networks you would have thought that just maintaining and developing these would be hard enough. However, companies also routinely face ongoing challenges with the fight against damaging software, such as malware such as worms, viruses, and spyware.

Computer networking has enabled people to work on the move, and take work home much more efficiently than has ever been possible before. Today’s mobile workforce attach numerous devices to the corporate network that are hard to control from a security policy perspective. It is a common strand that companies that maximize the use of and benefits from the capacities and capabilities of their networks are able to gather, analyze, and disseminate critical marketing information quickly, which can give them an advantage over their competitors.

However, data loss and system downtime can bring any business to it’s knees, so in this area to use the strictly cheapest systems and labor, may be a false economy of the first order. There are many highly trained staff who participate in Microsoft’s certified computer networking courses and qualification. These specialists are more than able to protect your business network day and night. They deliver network support services which include data security, data backup and disaster recovery plans.

Source by Steve Last