The friends of others never rest, not even at Christmas, and your Wi-Fi network can become, on these very important dates, a “candy” for them. If you take care of security and have your Wi-Fi network properly protected, don’t worry, it is very unlikely that it will be compromised, but otherwise you may end up having problems.
Let’s face it, the chances that you have a neighbor with very advanced knowledge, and that he has some interest in sneaking into your Wi-Fi network, are minimal, not to say almost nil , so even with basic protection your connection should be completely safe. All this is easy to understand, but what can we consider as basic protection when we talk about a Wi-Fi network? We could introduce many nuances that would change the idea slightly, but in the end, it is enough for us to start with three very simple keys that we are going to see in this article.
Those three keys will help us, precisely, to get the protection we need so that our Wi-Fi network is secure, and so that it works without problems on these important dates. I am convinced that you are looking forward to meeting them, so I will not keep you waiting any longer, let’s get to it.
1.-Wi-Fi network and password: Would you leave the front door open?
You must have answered with a resounding “no”. Because using a weak or vulnerable password is practically equivalent to leaving your Wi-Fi network open . We could put many examples of passwords not at all secure, but these are some of the best known, and the most problematic:
- “1234567” and the like (ladder numbers).
- Very short number combinations, and several repeated numbers (“777777”, for example).
- Names of close people, dates of birth and other personal information easily available.
Choosing, and using, a secure password will allow us to close the door to possible intruders , and we will be placing, at the same time, a robust virtual lock that will prevent them from entering. If you have questions about how to create a secure password, don’t miss this article that we published a few months ago, and follow the steps you will find in it.
2.-Wi-Fi network and SSID: Not showing it is an advantage
Another way to strengthen the security of our Wi-Fi network is not to show the SSID, that is, the name of the network. To connect to a Wi-Fi network it is necessary to know two pieces of information: the name and the password. Normally, the name of the network is displayed publicly, so to connect to a network we only have to select the one we want from among all those available, and enter the password.
Well, when disabling the SSID (network name), this network will no longer appear publicly, so anyone who wants to connect to that network must manually enter its name [19459003 ] and your password. If you know the password, but do not know the name of the network, you will not be able to enter. That is why it is a very important additional layer of security, and very interesting.
This setting can be done easily through the router interface, as we told you at the time in this article . It’s not perfect, but offers high protection value for minimal effort , and is therefore very worth it.
3.-Create a Wi-Fi network for guests
Although this Christmas will be marked, again, by COVID-19, it will continue to be a very important date in which we will receive visits from friends and loved ones. Sharing our Wi-Fi network so that they can surf the Internet from their smartphones will once again become commonplace, and this can pose a risk to the security of our network.
Fortunately, this is something we can solve quite simply: with a guest network. The guest network was also a topic that we recently discussed , and as we told you at the time, it allows us to create a secondary Wi-Fi network separate from our main network, which has its own name and your own password. We can also set bandwidth limitations to prevent it from draining all the resources from our main network.
A guest network also will allow us to overcome the inconvenience of having the SSID hidden, and being forced to continually give the name of the network when we receive visits and want to share our Wi-Fi connection.