Home networks are quite common in many of today’s households. These days, it’s actually quite the norm for the average family to have networking equipment in their home. Having a network in the home makes it a lot easier for computers and other devices to communicate with each other as well as share an internet connection. Yes, home networks provide extremely helpful features to computers, but lots of people forget that internal network security is a big issue with these networks. Many don’t know exactly how to secure their network, and there are many that don’t even take it into consideration.
Internal network security is imperative for a number of reasons. It’s important to secure your home network so that you can keep outside intruders from accessing your network and files, minimize threats like viruses and spyware, and more. For example, if you were to leave your home network unsecured, an intruder could easily access the network and do something like change your login information for you router so that he/she could gain complete control over the device. Even worse, he/she could access confidential files that you wouldn’t want the public tampering with.
This is why it’s completely necessary to take internal network security into consideration when maintaining a home network. The great news is that it’s relatively simple for computer users to implement security measures with their home networks. Additionally, it doesn’t take long to significantly heighten your defense and internal network security against possible threats.
One of the first steps in keeping your network secured is using a reputable firewall on all computers connected to the network and making sure the router’s firewall is enabled. Firewalls essentially protect your data and hardware from outside threats such as malicious software or intruders. Make sure that firewalls are being used to strengthen your internal network security. Additionally, make sure that antivirus and antispyware software is installed on all computers connected to the network.
Next, make sure that you’re using some sort of network security on your network such as WEP security or WPA. WEP is typically not recommended in comparison to WPA because of its weaker protection and encryption. WPA is a stronger method, and it even works with more unique devices.
You may have noticed a feature in your router’s firmware concerning “remote administration.” This is essentially a feature that allows your router to be accessed from the internet. This is helpful in some cases, but for most people, it’s not needed. Turn this feature off and keep it off.
While not broadcasting the SSID of your router may deter most people, those who attempt to hack into your network can easily bypass this feature. Not broadcasting the SSID of your router may also cause problems with connecting to your network, so it may be best to keep this feature enabled.