Tips For Keeping Your Home Network Secure

It used to be that if you knew what a router or what wireless was, you were a bit of a computer geek. But now most of us can speak with some authority about routers, switches, firewalls, and Ethernet cards, and an array of other things that previously seemed like a whole other world of computer jargon.

Manufacturers decided long ago to make installation of some of these devices easy and inexpensive, which opened up this whole new world to most of us. We soon learned that if we had multiple computers, we could create a network in our homes so they can all share the same Internet connection. Up to this point even having a single Internet connection was almost considered magic but actually sharing it between computers...a new revolution in technology was about to begin.

But what those of us at home didn't get his training in how to use these products. We didn't learn, for example, how to secure our networks and other devices from hackers. That never came as part of your broadband package did it?

But there is good news. There are many things the vendors did provide you with. Have you actually read the manual that came with your product? If not, you should be introduced to a common term used by computer professionals. It's known as "RTFM" and while we will leave out the middle term for politeness sake. Many of us forget this basic step of reading the documents you got with your Internet equipment.

Ports

To secure your home computers the first thing you should do for your router is to change the password and if possible rename the account for the administrator. Anyone who bought the same model router as you will also have the same administrator account name and password - this is the last thing you want.

Open Port 80 which is the standard for HTTP and it's needed for web browsing; by opening this port, you allow for specific IP address or ranges to go out. This one security setting ensures that only known computers can generate traffic in or out of your home computer.

You should be concerned with traffic going out from your home computer. Why? Honestly, if your computer is not properly secured, it can infect other computers, and you don't want to spread viruses to others. And if you have a wireless network, you might not know who else is on your network.

So open Port 80 for all that incoming traffic. The only way to avoid this is to track the IP address of every site you visit. This is nearly impossible. If you use a desktop email program, like Outlook, for example, you will also need to open Port 25 for outgoing mail and Port 110 for incoming mail. Basically, the bottom line is you should close your network to everything by default and only open up when you truly need to open up and only to those who need access.

Wireless networks

If you set up a wireless network in your home, you have a bit more security work to do. By design, a wireless network can allow anyone in your neighborhood to access your network and use the Internet with your account. This is handy if your child needs Internet access to do homework upstairs while you work downstairs, but it also means that the neighbor down the street and the hacker around the corner can access your network. That's not good.

So, read that manual again and figure out how to protect your wireless network. You will learn how to configure the passwords and about any other security features that are available with your particular router.

Though there are many benefits to having a router in your home and a wireless network, it does require a little more work on your part to make sure that your computer is safe. Do some work now so you don't have to do it later. Trust us - if you do get hacked you'll wonder why you didn't do the work ahead of time.

You're running a home network but you're not sure if it's secure? Keep your family and your information safe by learning more about internet privacy and security right now. For more information click on over to http://www.CPUSecurity.com