How To Protect Your Wi-Fi From Unwanted Guests
No one wants neighbors stealing their Wi-Fi, but what are you doing to protect your Wi-Fi from unwanted guests? Put your Wi-Fi network on lockdown and keep unwelcome guests out of your Wi-Fi by following these five tips. These tips won’t require a tech guru to do, so no more excuses and let’s start tending to your Wi-Fi networks security needs right now. These tips will
also work on any internet provider like Charter, Verizon, AT&T, or HughesNet satellite internet.
Put A Password On Your Wi-Fi
The number one way to keep unwanted guests from accessing your Wi-Fi network is to put a password on it! It may not keep seasoned cybercriminals out forever, but the kids down the street won’t be able to mooch off your Wi-Fi anymore, freeing up bandwidth for your family.
When creating your new password, make sure it is something that would be impossible for anyone to guess, but still be memorable to you. Experts recommend that secure passwords should be as long as possible with numbers, special characters, and upper and lowercase letters too.
Don’t Share Your Password With Anyone Outside Your Household
This might be stating the obvious, but don’t share your Wi-Fi password with anyone that doesn’t live with you. If you’d like to lay out the welcome mat to guests spending the night or contractors working on your home, that’s very kind of you but set them up with your guest network instead.
If you don’t have a guest Wi-Fi network set up yet, they’re actually really easy to set up and you should set it up to keep your main network secure. Just be sure to choose a unique password for your new guest network that’s different from your main network.
Change Your Wi-Fi Password Regularly
The easiest way to kick freeloaders off of your Wi-Fi network is to change your Wi-Fi network’s password. You can change your password within your router’s network settings and change it as often as you feel that you need to.
If youre not sure how to get into your router’s network settings, we highly recommend downloading the manufacturer’s app for your phone. All your router settings will be within the app and are more user-friendly than the traditional web interface. Unfortunately, each time you
change your Wi-Fi password, you will have to sign back in on all of your web-enabled devices, but the minor inconvenience will kick your unwanted guests off.
Change Your Routers Admin Login Information
The next step to keeping unwanted guests out of your Wi-Fi network is making it harder for them to get in by changing your router’s admin default login information. Router manufacturers use the same default usernames and passwords across most of the routers they produce.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals who like to hack into Wi-Fi networks know all the common manufacturer default usernames and passwords and will attempt to use those first. If you think this is an unlikely scenario, default credentials are easily found online through forums and digital user manuals.
If someone manages to get into your Wi-Fi router’s admin console, they can change all your admin credentials including the password to completely lock you out. So changing your router’s default username and password is imperative to keeping your Wi-Fi network secure and under control by the person that actually pays for it.
Update Your Routers Firmware
The final way you can keep those pesky unwanted guests off of your Wi-Fi is to update your router’s firmware and periodically check that it’s updated with every update available. Your router’s firmware is the software that behind the scenes making your router work properly and ultimately providing the best experience possible to everyone connected to your network.
Leaving your firmware on an outdated version is risky and can be a serious security issue if not attended to as soon as possible. Outdated firmware has known exploits that can be taken advantage of if a cybercriminal wanted to. They might not care about mooching off your Wi-Fi, but they could do more damage than that if they wanted to steal your personal information or infecting your connected devices with malware. So download your router’s mobile app and get your router’s firmware updated as soon as you can.
