Home Network: Protecting your home wireless network from hackers

Protecting your home wireless network from hackers

Protecting your home wireless network from hackers has become easier with security built in to many home wireless routers. Unlike intruders, hackers attempt to hack into the network directly through the Internet. From there they can delete valuable information, or use the victims computer to launch attacks on other computers and systems across the world.

Many home routers come with built in firewalls. If yours has one make sure to enable it. Firewalls control incoming and outgoing traffic across the network. They prevent incoming attacks from hackers and malicious code that may have been installed on a local computer from accessing the outside. They provide an essential layer of security. Some firewalls may limit certain programs for accessing the Internet or local network, so they will have to be configured for program access. Enabling a routers firewall can be done through the routers web based interface.

Some routers also have an option to prevent DoS (Denial of Service) and Ping attacks. Denial of Service attacks when an attacker attempts to send a lot of data to a machine with brute force. This can cause the machine to crash. Ping is a command line utility used to verify the existence of an IP address across a network. As such ping can be subject to security vulnerabilities. Unless you need the service it is worth disabling it from your hardware firewall.