Protecting your home network

What are you doing to secure your personal home network? We often hear about organisational cybersecurity and large scale cyberattacks, but it’s just as important to protect your home network.

Your Wi-Fi router is probably the most underrated tech gadget in your home, without it many of your other devices would be pretty useless – it can connect to your computer, phone, game consoles, security cameras, TV, tablet… even the fridge! With that kind of access, you want to ensure the network is secure – if someone else were to gain access it could easily compromise all of those devices in your home.

So how can you secure your home network? Here are some simple tips and tricks that will reduce your risk and keep your devices protected.

Change the default name and password

This one’s pretty simple, but incredibly effective. Your router generally comes set up with a default name and password – but the first thing you want to do is change these.

Use a unique name that doesn’t include any identifying factors and pick a secure password that can’t be easily guessed (i.e. avoid using your last name or street address). Don’t forget to do this for both the router admin and Wi-Fi network.

• Router admin password: This is required to access your router and would allow someone to change important settings, including your Wi-Fi password.
• Wi-Fi network: These are the details you will use to connect your devices to the network. Ensuring you have a secure password in place will stop strangers from accessing your network.

We recommend updating your Wi-Fi password every now and again (as you should with any password). It’s definitely annoying having to reconnect all your devices but it’s a good opportunity to get rid of anyone with network access that shouldn’t be there.

Limit who you allow to access your home Wi-Fi

Good security starts by knowing who has access to your home network. The more people who can connect to your wireless network the more risk there is of someone accessing important information or data.

This is why it’s a good idea to avoid giving out your Wi-Fi credentials to people you don’t know very well (such as a tradie doing work at your house) and ensuring you don’t allow any unknown devices connection to your network.

If there is a valid reason you need to give a stranger access your home Wi-Fi, you might want to think about changing the password later.

Set up a guest network

Following on from the tip above, if someone does need to use your internet check to see if you can set up a guest network on your router. Many routers have this functionality, and this will mean you can give your guest a separate network option but hides anything from your main network.

Keep your router up to date

Last but not least, make sure you keep the firmware on your router up to date. You can do this by visiting the manufacturer’s website where it will show if there’s a newer version of the software available or ask our team how you can do this.

To help you do this on a regular basis we recommend you set a recurring date in your calendar with a reminder to check if there are any updates and you can update your password at the same time.

Talk to our team about the best wireless internet set-up for you

At Wireless Dynamics we have plans to suit a variety of requirements and budgets. Our team of rural connection specialists are locally based and are always up for a chat to learn more about how you use the internet; whether you a gamer, love a Netflix binge or just want to send the odd email – getting to know you a little better will help us recommend the right plan for you.

If you have a home, business or farm in the King Country, we would love to help you get connected. Get in touch today with our local team today to chat more about our services and plans.