Wireless Network Security

It seems that more and more home users are going with wireless networks rather than the tradition wired networks with wires hanging everywhere and running wild around the house and in the crawlspace. What seems like a good idea quickly turns into a nightmare if you don’t vamp up the security of your wireless network.

Speed is of the essence. Typically, one thing matters to new users of wireless, getting connected and browsing that first website. While wireless connectivity can accomplish this, it’s best to set up your wireless connection securely before venturing out into cyberspace. Below are some tips to help secure your wireless network.

Change the default admin password. Admin passwords are easily figured out by attackers when they are left as the default. Not changing your wireless admin password opens your network to attack and can lead to many problems depending on the attacker’s agenda.

Another wireless security measure you will need to take is turning on encryption. Enabling WEP encryption on your wireless network will help you protect your privacy and all your info won’t be floating around outside your home waiting to be picked up by a passerby. It’s important to remember that all your devices on the wireless network will need to have the same encryption. So find the strongest encryption possible that will work on all devices of the wireless network.

Stop the auto-connect feature. Do not allow your devices to auto-connect. Allowing auto-connect may connect to a network that you don’t particularly want. Example, you don’t want your laptop connecting to your neighbor’s network and sending info.

It’s also a good idea that you install firewalls on all devices that connect to the wireless network. Even if the wireless router is firewalled, it’s important to also install firewalls on all computers that are connected to the wifi network. It’s important that these firewalls be set up correctly and block any intrusions that may compromise your wifi network.

Position your wireless router close to the center of your home. Although the reach of wifi networks can vary greatly, it’s important to not allow the signal to float around great distances from the main access point. It virtually impossible to stop all leakage from exiting your home. But minimizing the risk to your wifi network will help to protect it.

Another good idea for wifi network security is to not allow broadcast of the SSID. Your router may have SSID broadcasting set up by default; however you should be able to change this setting in the configuration. This feature is only useful for mobile environments, and is not needed in home wifi networks.

These are just a few tips to securing your wifi network. It’s always a good idea to check for firmware updates to your router as new exploits and vulnerabilities arise. Some routers will have an auto update feature and it’s important to use it. Using auto update will help keep your wifi network secure without the need of remembering to check for updates.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

HISTORY OF NETWORKS

Before the advent of computer networks that were based upon some type of telecommunications system, communication between calculation machines and early computers was performed by human users by carrying instructions between them. Many of the social behavior seen in today's Internet was demonstrably present in nineteenth-century telegraph networks, and arguably in even earlier networks using visual signals.

In September 1940 George Stibitz used a teletype machine to send instructions for a problem set from his Model K at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to his Complex Number Calculator in New York and received results back by the same means. Linking output systems like teletypes to computers was an interest at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) when, in 1962, J.C.R. Licklider was hired and developed a working group he called the "Intergalactic Network", a precursor to the ARPANet.

In 1964, researchers at Dartmouth developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System for distributed users of large computer systems. The same year, at MIT, a research group supported by General Electric and Bell Labs used a computer (DEC's PDP-8) to route and manage telephone connections.

Throughout the 1960s Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran and Donald Davies independently conceptualized and developed network systems which used datagrams or packets that could be used in a packet switched network between computer systems.

The first widely used PSTN switch that used true computer control was the Western Electric 1ESS switch, introduced in 1965.

In 1969 the University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah were connected as the beginning of the ARPANet network using 50 kbit/s circuits. Commercial services using X.25, an alternative architecture to the TCP/IP suite, were deployed in 1972.

Computer networks, and the technologies needed to connect and communicate through and between them, continue to drive computer hardware, software, and peripherals industries. This expansion is mirrored by growth in the numbers and types of users of networks from the researcher to the home user.

Today, computer networks are the core of modern communication. The scope of communication has increased significantly in the past decade and this boom in communications would not have been possible without the progressively advancing computer network.