How to Secure Your Home Wi-Fi Network

The internet is so incredibly important these days that many devices become almost disposable if it were to be compromised –– and this applies not only to network instability, but to hacker attacks as well.

With this in mind, we have put together some valuable tips to help you protect your home Wi-Fi network against possible intrusions. These suggestions contribute to the integrity of the network and also to keeping your data safe. Check out more information below.

Change SSID and Password

The Service Set Identifier, better known as SSID, is the name of your Wi-Fi network. In other words, it is the identification that appears on your device when you connect to someone else's internet. If your SSID has a random name that does not identify where the network belongs, that's okay.

However, if your Wi-Fi network has important data in the SSID –– such as the make and model of the router used –– then it is essential to reset this name and enter a new one. The same goes for your password: define a series of alphanumeric characters and special digits to increase your security.

Reset the router username

A complex password is usually enough to keep most people from trying to hack into your network away. However, it is also recommended that you reset your username, which is used along with your password to access your network settings.

This is important because even if your password is complex, a cybercriminal can still crack it if they have your username. So, go to your router’s settings page and change the username to something complex.

Enable strong encryption

Encryption is a kind of “security process” that acts on your router’s traffic and data, moving this information in such a way that it becomes very complicated to intercept it.

Go to your Wi-Fi settings page and check if the encryption type set is WPA2 or WPA3. If not, change this feature and put it in one of these two categories to ensure that your network is more secure.

Read more:

Enable firewall

A firewall is a security system that acts as a sort of filter: it receives and processes incoming and outgoing network traffic, and uses a barrier to prevent suspicious contacts from accessing your internet (such as hacking attempts). In general, if the firewall detects that a suspicious computer is trying to invade your network, it blocks it and issues a notification to alert you.

Every router has a built-in firewall, even if it’s a fairly basic version. Activating it is a simple but very diverse process: we recommend that you contact your internet provider’s support to find out the best way to activate it.

Keep your firmware up to date

Firmware is software that comes pre-installed on the router at the factory, which helps the technology to function correctly –– in fact, it is the firewall that is inside it. Updating it whenever possible is very important because it also reinforces the security barriers of your network, as it fixes bugs that previously left gaps in your security.

Therefore, it is important to get into the habit of checking if your router has any updates that have not yet been implemented. The way to update can be quite diverse, but in this article we talk about it in more detail.