HELP! Creating a Secure Network

[Julie Marie]

Besides a hard to crack password on the router and software for the computers, is there any way to make your home network more secure?

[Janet_Girl]

I have a couple of software programs that monitor my connection and I also scan regularly.

[Ellieka]

At your router,if your using wireless, Disable SSID Broadcasting and use WEP-TKIP encryption instead of WPA. Disabling SSID will stop your network form being visible to computers looking for any available network. Just remeber what your SSID (network name) is so that you can still connect to it. WPA can be cracked rather easily. WEP-TKIP is a bit more secure with less overhead then WPA or WEP-AES.


Also be sure to disable remote router management from outside your personal network. This will keep people from changing things from the WAN (internet) side.

PM me if you need any more info

[Sandy]

Cami seems to have hit all the high points.  And I can't really add too much more for the residential machines.

Also practicing safe computing is very important.  Don't put things like credit card information or passwords on the computer.  Only visit safe sites.  Keep your anti-virus software up to date.  There are also options on the newer versions of IE and FireFox that will purge your cookies and history when you exit the software.

To have even more safety, unplug from the network or turn the computer off when not in use. That reduces the opportunities for exposure.

Using a different OS like Linux can reduce exposure as well since most security threats are windows based.

There's probably more, but greater security requires greater effort and expense.

-Sandy

[Julie Marie]

At your router,if your using wireless, Disable SSID Broadcasting and use WEP-TKIP encryption instead of WPA. Disabling SSID will stop your network form being visible to computers looking for any available network. Just remeber what your SSID (network name) is so that you can still connect to it. WPA can be cracked rather easily. WEP-TKIP is a bit more secure with less overhead then WPA or WEP-AES.


Also be sure to disable remote router management from outside your personal network. This will keep people from changing things from the WAN (internet) side.

Hmmm... It looks like I did okay with the exception of WEK-TKIP.  The router instructions said WPA2 was the most secure so I chose that.  And it seemed to like "TKIP and AES", rather than one or the other, for the other choice, saying it would be the most compatible.  When I chose WEK it had a smaller limit for characters in the password and the instructions said it was less secure. 

I looked all over for disabling SSID on the wireless router (there's two in line, the second is wireless) but couldn't find that feature. 

On the computers I removed any exceptions that allowed for remote access.

I spent all day yesterday fixing the system.  It seemed someone (we may know) got in and played with things.  It wasn't terribly malicious, just enough to make accessing the home network or Internet fail.  I was surprised I was able to do it.  Now I can add IT Technician to the resume. 

Thanks Ladies!

[jamie lee]

Cami seems to have hit all the high points.  And I can't really add too much more for the residential machines.

Also practicing safe computing is very important.  Don't put things like credit card information or passwords on the computer.  Only visit safe sites.  Keep your anti-virus software up to date.  There are also options on the newer versions of IE and FireFox that will purge your cookies and history when you exit the software.

To have even more safety, unplug from the network or turn the computer off when not in use. That reduces the opportunities for exposure.

Using a different OS like Linux can reduce exposure as well since most security threats are windows based.

There's probably more, but greater security requires greater effort and expense.

-Sandy

Just one more little thing, if your using MS for your OS just make sure your updated with the most current security updates.
Jamie