The need to password protect your wireless network is obvious when you think about it. The wireless router or access point in your network is essentially a radio transmitter. Like a radio transmitter, anyone with the right equipment can pick up the signal if they’re in range. Password protection can keep intruders out of your wireless network, maintaining the privacy of your personal information.

Use Encryption To Password Protect Your Wireless Network
Data encryption is used to “scramble” the signals your wireless network uses to send information back and forth between computers. Only users that know the password (also known as a pass phrase or key) can unscramble the signals into useable data. There are two forms of encryption used in current wireless technology--Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).

WEP was the first form of encryption used in wireless networks. It is most common in first generation network equipment and non-PC devices like PDAs, game consoles and media players. Although WEP is not as strong as other encryption methods, it does provide a basic level of protection that is better than none at all. If you’re using WEP, you can make it more effective by changing your password frequently.

WPA is currently the preferred method of wireless network encryption. WPA allows for passwords that use characters besides letter and numbers, which allows for more secure passwords. WPA also provides stronger encryption that is considered harder to defeat by intruders. WPA may not be supported by all hardware, but is designed to drop back to WEP in situations where hardware is not compatible.

An Electronic Bouncer
As an added layer of password protection, consider enabling MAC filtering. Each computer is assigned a unique 12-character identifier called a Media Access Control (MAC) ID. MAC filtering creates a list of MAC addresses that are allowed to access your network. The MAC ID works like a second password, allowing only a select number of computers into the network.