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Home » Blog » What does a WIFI connection have to meet to be safe?

What does a WIFI connection have to meet to be safe?

You step outside your house with your phone in your hand, and there is a sign that you are connection with your WIFI network. After that you forget it existence. As long as there are devices connected with a WIFI connection and you are on the internet everything should be okay right? Step by step we will take you on the problems that WIFI can bring. Do you want to be well secured, then read this list with possible solutions.

Wikileaks

We live in a time where Wikileaks can dominate the news with data that is leaked. The whistle-blowers are hidden and live in full anonymity. When you are concerned about your safety of the data then you should think about the dangers of WIFI. For example, a hacker can easily break in to steal data while he is in his car with his laptop and you are eating dinner.

An important question you should be asking is what you can do about it and what you would want to do. Following the next tips makes you a lot more secured than the average users of wireless internet. However full security doesn’t exist, whatever you do. But you can make sure that you are not an easy target for digital predators.

Firewall

There is a standard firewall built in in the router. This keeps the intern network protected against attacks from outside. This is something that can be manually activated as long as that didn’t happen automatically. Maybe you will see SPI (stateful packet inspection) or NAT (network address translation). In both cases you can turn these on as an extra protection layer

To make the whole even more secured you can also install a firewall-software on your own computer. With that you are secured that your own programs also don’t send data through the internet without your permission. One of these firewalls that you can buy is Comodo Firewall 10

Activate encryption

This is not the same as making a password for your router. This option will make sure that besides the password for wireless internet, there is also an extra code needed to be filled in. When you make this, make sure that the password is something you can easily remember. For example a funny sentence, then you don’t have to look it up every time because you forgot.

Change the password from time to time

It is nice to give your visitors access to the network without the need to fill in a password with encryption. But can you always trust them 100%? How is it with your neighbours or coincidental passers-by? When they are close to your wifi, they can access it if they have the password. You can also change your password after anything else.

veilig wifi

Turn WPS off

WPS Wi-Fi Protected Setup, also known as WPS, is an option to give devices simple access to your router, even when encryption is used. It is easily hacked and that means that anyone with a physical access point to your router can log in. Turn this option off. Unless the router is hidden away, this is a serious threat that you maybe didn’t think about.

Anonymity

The next option will make it more difficult for friends and family to go on the internet when they are visiting you. A router has SSID settings. These are responsible for the visibility of the WIFI. Turn this off, so that the network is hidden. It is still reachable but it uses a (small kind of ) anonymity.

Turn DHCP off

The DHCP server in your router gives your IP address automatically to devices that are logged in on this network. Because of the scope of the IP addresses you can limit the amount of logged in devices. You can also choose to turn off DHCP completely. In that cafe you have to manually connect a IP address to an device.

Filter on MAC-Address

Every device that can make connection with a network had a MAC address. This is the same as a digital fingerprint. On some routers you can state for which MAC addresses a wireless connection is allowed.

The router itself

Every router is delivered with a generic username and password. Sometimes there isn’t even a password with it. You need it to get access to it the first time to your router, after which you can internet wirelessly. After that is it necessary to change your username, as well as your password. Because the factory settings are pre-installed and users forget to change this, this seems to be a flaw. This log in data can easily be traced. Therefore it is really easy for evil minded persons to log in on this. Use capitals, numbers and reading signs for the making of log in data. With a intelligent username and password you avoid troubles. Or you choose for the anonymity of VPN.

Custom firmware

You can use a custom firmware to install VPN on your computer. By using VPN you can secure all online activities by using encryption. Another solution is to purchase a special router from a VPN provider. The big advantage is that this hardware works with the pre-installed software. The solution is to buy a special VPN router but this isn’t cheap. For the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 you have the best, you have to spent almost 400 euros.

The abbreviation of VPN has just been named. For when you are totally lost, a short description of what it is precisely. It stands for a Virtual Private Network. It is best compared to a digital pipeline between two points. First there is a connection made with the Virtual Private Network, after which you have connection to the rest of the world. The data between you and the VPN point is encrypted.

VPN-abonnement

It is also possible to take a VPN provider subscription to protect your WIFI at home, or when you are carefree and wireless using the internet at an cafe. You make online connection with the VPN provider to go on the internet in all security. There are different services that offer VPN subscriptions. Take your time for choosing a VPN provider

You can also use a VPN service on Windows computers, macOS, Android and IOS. In many cases there is software being made accessible by the VPN provider to make faster use of it. The program’s aren’t high level of math, so even an digit beet can handle it. For the mobile devices, apps are the solution. In principle they work on the same way to protect the safety of wireless internet on your computer. Installation is usually finished within a few clicks.

In the end, nothing on the internet offers full certainty. But you can better surf the internet secured with all the tips that we gave. Are you curious in a VPN subscription, have a look at the list of providers on the website.

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