Wireless Master

Wi-Fi security is an issue that needs to be tackled. It is one of the main disadvantages of Wi-Fi. It is always necessary to have a proper security plan before installing Wi-Fi. You should be aware that if you have an unsecured network, then someone else could easily gain access to your confidential business information. It’s not that difficult to secure a network.

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was the original security standard for the Wi-Fi networks. This particular method put three barriers to intrusion – it required users to know the network identity (which was known as the Service Set Identifier), it required users to have a static key or password for encryption, and it limited access only to specific network devices that were identified by their MAC addresses. However, since its introduction, many intruders have discovered methods that allow them to bypass these security barriers with the greatest of ease. While WEP effectively deters the casual intruder and is somewhat adequate for a small office / home office (SOHO) networks, it is quite useless against someone who has a good amount of network security knowledge, and cannot protect large networks properly.

But now a much stronger security model has been introduced into the market, which is called WPA – Wi-Fi Protected Access. This was designed to specifically counteract the flaws in WEP, and has actually quite effectively deterred even the strongest and dedicated of intruders. WPA is supported by most Wi-Fi equipment, but sometimes, it should be noted, computers and wireless access points may need software upgrades to enable WPA.

You should also know that security concerns need to be looked into, when there is a question of computers accessing a wireless network, whether it’s at a remote hotspot, or it’s at the office. Basically any computer or laptop that has Wi-Fi capability should always have an active firewall, plus virus and spyware scanners. Today, much progress has been made in securing the Wi-Fi networks. WEP encryption is used to secure real time traffic, and you should definitely use WPA encryption. How can you stop other people from connecting to your network? Well, you should ideally limit your wireless coverage to a controlled area, and use a MAC address filtering, it it’s applicable. Also, limit DHCP addresses, or assign static addresses, and you should also disable SSID broadcast.

If you want to secure real-time traffic (including email and Web browsing), then encryption is perhaps the best method. If you want to prevent unauthorized users from successfully connecting to your network, then you should use MAC address filtering and disable the SSID broadcast. Basically, if you want enhanced security, then you should implement a variety of security methods – this makes it much harder for Wi-Fi users to see your readable real-time data.

So before you put in Wi-Fi, do think about the security concerns. This is especially true if you are installing Wi-Fi in your office, of course you would not want people to intrude on your private and confidential business data, right? So do think about the Wi-Fi security and take adequate measures.