Wi-Fi Hardwares

Setting up security on your wireless network is actually quite simple and something that is really essential.  You do not want anybody to be able to access your WiFi network so you need to ensure that you have configured encryption so you limit the possibilities of somebody gaining unauthorized access to your local area network and Internet.

There are a vast amount of routers available in the marketplace was basically the settings should be very similar across the board. Many people shy away from this is taking it is too technical for them to make simple little changes and may want to call in a so-called expert in order to enable security features and ensure that they are set up correctly. To be honest you should learn how to do this yourself, as it is very simple to achieve.

First of all you need to connect directly to your wireless router using a cable from your laptop. This is a network cable or Cat-5 cable as it is sometimes called. Most routers allow you to access their interface using your Internet browser by simply putting in the IP address of the router into the address bar. If you are unsure how to do this just have a quick look at your router manual and they should give clear and precise instructions of how to do this.

Once you have the interface displayed on your laptop screen you are then looking to find the security settings so you can enable security and make changes if needed. Do not be frightened of this is very very basic and you can not make any mistakes. There are a couple of things that you can change in here one is the Network ID or SSID which is essentially the name of your network. Change this to a name that you will recognize and we will explain in a moment of this is about.

To enable encryption you can select WEP with this you have to enter a 10-digit passphrase or password. You will be asked to enter numbers between 0-9 and letter between A-F make sure you keep notes of what the password you are entering is as you need to know what this passphrase is at a later stage. Once this is done you can save settings and may also need to restart your router.

Unplug the network cable from your laptop. You will then need to go to the view available wireless networks within windows, which should list all of the WiFi networks in your area. Your network will most likely be the strongest signal but you can also tell which one it is from the Network ID that you setup in one of the previous steps. Simply double click on your network and enter the passphrase once this has been done you should have a successful connection to your wireless network.

Your network is now secure and encrypted and you should now have peace of mind that there will be no unauthorized access onto your local area network or anybody using your Internet connection.