How do i secure my network

Turn off the WPS setting. Use a VPN. Master your smart devices with our weekly newsletter. Sign up to get the latest smart home tips and reviews directly in your inbox. Sign Up. What is Network security?

Image: Ivan Samkov, Pexels. Keep snoops away by hiding the name of your network or SSID. Use Strong Passwords. Make it long—at least 16 characters is recommended. Use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Test the strength of your password.

You can use a password manager or an online password checker to find out how secure the password is in real time. Use a password manager. They help you keep track of your passwords, and some even generate random passwords that are hard for both humans and computers to crack. Exclude other computers from connecting to yours. Keep Everything Updated. Turn On Encryption. Look for the WPA2 Personal setting. Set the encryption type to AES.

Enter a password or network key. This password is different from the one you used for your router and will be used to connect all devices to your Wi-Fi network. Use the strong password guidelines above to create a secure password. Image: Christina Morillo, Pexels. Use Multiple Firewalls.

Best antivirus software. Bitdefender Total Security. View on Amazon. Best identity theft protection. Once changed, you use the new address to access your router settings. If for any reason, you need to change your IP address back again, you can restore your router to its factory settings.

The Internet of Things IoT is a term used to describe physical devices other than computers, phones, and servers, which connect to the internet and can collect and share data. Examples of IoT devices include wearable fitness trackers, smart refrigerators, smart watches, and voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home. For those looking to maximize their router security and avoid router attacks, you could set up a separate Wi-Fi network for your IoT devices.

This is known as a VLAN — a virtual local area network. With a VLAN, you can ensure your most valuable devices — computers and phones, which contain the most sensitive data — are on one network, and your less secure IoT devices are on another.

This removes the risk of poorly secured IoT devices acting as potential entry points for hackers to compromise your computers or phones. Using a VLAN doesn't limit functionality since most IoT devices are controlled through smartphone apps connected to cloud services. Most of these devices don't need to communicate with mobile phones or computers directly over the local network after their initial set-up if they have internet access.

Universal Plug and Play UPnP helps devices in your home discover your network and then communicate with their manufacturer for firmware updates and supplies. UPnP is a critical element of the Internet of Things, but unfortunately, it's also a channel for hackers to infect devices and include them in botnets. UPnP can also be used by malware programs to obtain high-level access to your router's security settings.

Your router has to cooperate with the UPnP system so that your household gadgets receive access to the internet. Because many devices don't have password protection or use the same password for all devices, these smart pieces of equipment can be a security vulnerability. UPnP helps a device get set up, but once it is working, it's advisable to switch off its UPnP capabilities and turn off UPnP compatibility in your router.

Many routers come with features designed to make remote access from outside your home more straightforward. However, unless you need admin-level access to your router from somewhere else, you can usually safely turn these features off from the router settings panel.

If you have remote access disabled, you reduce the risk of people remotely accessing your router and tampering with it. To do this, open your router's web interface and look for the "Remote Access," "Remote Administration," or "Remote Management" feature.

Ensure it's disabled — often, it is disabled by default on many routers, but it's worth checking. If it turns out that some of the apps and devices on your network rely on remote access, you can always enable the feature again if you need to. Many routers allow users to restrict which devices are allowed on their Wi-Fi networks based on their MAC address. Enabling MAC address filtering can prevent attackers from connecting to a Wi-Fi network even if they know its password.

You must find the address of each device you wish to allow on your network and then enter those addresses into the router and turn on the MAC address filtering option.

It is worth noting that MAC addresses can be faked, and sophisticated attackers know how to exploit this. An attacker still needs to know one of the valid addresses for that network to break in, but this is not difficult for anyone experienced in using network sniffer tools. That said, MAC filtering prevents average hackers from gaining network access — so it provides another layer of protection when securing a router.

If you can, locate your router in the center of your home. Remember that routers radiate above and below as well as horizontally. If you have a two-story home, placing the router on a high shelf on the lower level will help ensure that the upper level will receive coverage as well as downstairs. One of the easiest ways to protect your home network is to turn it off when you're not at home. Turning your Wi-Fi off while you're away reduces the chances of hackers attempting to break into your home network when you're not at home.

The computers and other devices in your home can provide entry points for hackers to get onto your router. Many of the devices connected to your network will be portable — for example, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Portable devices are more likely to get infected since they connect to other networks and potentially use public Wi-Fi. If so, it's absolutely worth the extra effort. A lot of routers come with features designed to make remote access from outside your home easier, but unless you need admin-level access to your router from somewhere else, you can usually safely turn these features off from the router settings panel.

Besides, most remote access apps work fine without them. Another feature to look out for is Universal Plug and Play. Designed to make it easier for devices like games consoles and smart TVs to access the web without making you wade through a lot of configuration screens, UPnP can also be used by malware programs to get high-level access to your router's security settings. Keeping remote access and UPnP turned on won't suddenly expose you to the worst of the internet, but if you want to be as safe as possible, turn them off.

If it turns out that some of the apps and devices on your network rely on them, you can enable the features again without too much worry. You should also think about disabling Wi-Fi Protected Setup. WPS has good intentions, letting you connect new devices with a button push or a PIN code, but that also makes it easier for unauthorized devices to gain access; a numerical PIN is easier to brute force than an alphanumerical password. Unless you specifically need it, disable it. If your router has the option of broadcasting a so-called guest network, take advantage of it.

As the name suggests, it means you can grant your guests access to a Wi-Fi connection, without letting them get at the rest of your network—your Sonos speakers, the shared folders on your laptop, your printers, and so on. It's not like your friends and family are hackers in disguise, but letting them on your primary network means they might access a file that you'd rather they didn't, or inadvertently change a setting somewhere that causes you problems.

It also puts another speed bump in the way of someone who is secretly trying to get access to your network without your permission—even if they're able to get on the guest network, they won't be able to take control of your other devices, or your router. Your router should have the option to hide the SSID of your main network—basically the name of the network that appears when your devices scan for Wi-Fi. If visitors can't see this network then they can't connect to it, but you'll be able to add devices to it because you'll know what it's called.

And if you're not sure, it'll be listed in your router settings. Despite decades of relative neglect, most routers launched in the last couple of years come with excellent security built in.