Much has been said about the vulnerabilities of Wireless Networks. Many of the problems that have arisen are in the process of being dealt with and the next generation of wireless products will be much more secure than those presently available. However common sense and some changes to default settings can make your network about as secure as it needs to be! It's usually quite easy to spot somebody trying to hack your network. He's the guy camped out in your yard for 3 weeks trying to collect enough packets of data to encrypt your WEP encryption.

Here are some easy ways to ensure your network is safe. If you don't understand and of the terms below or don't have enough networking knowledge to setup the security yourself, BNS will be glad to help. Use this link to view what we can do for you in terms of security.

• Secure your wireless router / Access Point (AP)

• Enable WEP Encryption

• Use WEP for data and Authentication

• Use non-obvious WEP keys and periodically change them

• Use MAC address based Access and Association control

• Don't accept "ANY" ESSID

• Make use of secure file-sharing practices

• Use VPN

Wireless Access Points and Routers
Your router or Access Point should require a password to access its Admin features. Change this password from the default.

Enable WEP Encryption
802.11b wireless uses WEP encryption, Use a non-obvious encryption key on the highest bit rate allowed. Look for and use products that support 128bit WEP.
Use WEP for data and Authentication
Some products allow you to separately set the Authentication method to "Shared Key" or "Open System". Use the "Shared Key" method so that encryption is used to both authenticate your client and encrypt its data.

Use non-obvious WEP keys and periodically change them
Don't make it easy for hackers to get onto your LAN by using simple keys like 123456, all ones, etc. Changing keys periodically can help keep your LAN secure, so consider getting a procedure into place to do it.

Use MAC address based Access and Association control
MAC addresses are tied to physical network adapters, so using this method requires a little coordination. MAC addresses can be "spoofed" or imitated/copied, so it's not a guarantee of security. But it adds another hurdle for potential intruders to jump.

Don't accept "ANY" ESSID
Closed network features won't accept connections from clients using the default "ANY" ESSID. Check your routers documentation to see if your product has the ability to not accept clients with an "ANY" ESSID. If so, use it!

Make use of secure file-sharing practices
Share only what you need to share, use folders rather than whole drives and use a strong password to protect anything that is shared.

Use VPN
If you really don't want to take chances with your data, then you should run a VPN tunnel over your wireless connection. This may decrease your throughput rate, but isn't your data's security worth it?