Securing A Linksys Wireless Network
Wireless devices are also prone to security hacks simply because they are open to access and anyone with the help of a wireless network card and a few other easily available hacking tools can get their way into your system with ease.
Outlined below are few steps you can follow in order to secure your Linksys wireless network:
1. Altering the default password is the primary step in making things difficult for hackers who are well versed with the factory settings of most of the wireless devices like the wireless access points and the routers etc. If you don't change this password, you are taking on the risk of hackers getting into your wireless network with the default passwords and allowing them to modify the system settings.
2. All Linksys wireless products use the default SSID also termed as Service Set Identifier. This SSID is the networking name you are using and hackers may use this name to connect to your system. Change this to something you will easily remember but do not use any product names in the password to prevent hackers from knowing which device you are using. Also make sure you keep changing your passwords regularly so that even if a hacker gets in, they will have to repeat the attempts to hack in and this will prevent them from making future attempts to your system.
3. Also most wireless networking devices by default broadcast their SSID so others can join in the network by using this information. Hackers may be able to join and connect too so it is best to disable this SSID from being broadcasted unless you are running a public hotspot like a cybercafé etc. 4. Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) are the two kinds of encryption possible that make your data over a wireless network more secure as it is encrypted and not readable by hackers. Although out of the two, WAP is more secure as it utilizes a dynamic key encryption. 5. A MAC or a Media Access Control address is a unique address that is assigned to every machine connected to the network. With Media Access Control you can filter addresses so the access to your network would be only for a particular set of addresses. This should provide for the security for a home network or a small office. However it is still possible to get higher security with the help of a robust security method called RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service). Using RADIUS requires additional hardware and software and is available for a moderate price and as subscription service. Linksys uses something called a Linksys Wireless Guard, that is a form of a hosted RADIUS server to provide this service.
However RADIUS also has its pitfalls and the latest security for wireless networks is in the form of 802.11i standard which will add Layer 2 security to a Wi-Fi card and this provides enough security that is robust enough for corporate purposes.
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