The WiFi Router is a crucial device which not just controls the outgoing & incoming internet traffic but even avoids your data from being retrieved by anybody else if it is safe enough.
But that is the key question, how to increase the Wi-Fi router security so that it isn’t reachable by anybody without your consent? Here are few guidelines which may help you enhance the WiFi Router security.
Password & Security Protocol
Nowadays for WiFi routers he industry-standard security protocol is Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 or WPA-3, that is the newest security protocol. But, on old routers, this protocol is not obtainable & you must be operating the WPA2 security protocol if WPA3 is not obtainable.
WPA2 is very secure compared to WPA & WEP security protocols & it needs all latest device to write a passkey to link to the network.
Keeping Firmware Up to Date
Simply like your mobile phone & PC that operates on a detailed Operating System, be it Windows, Android, macOS, or iOS, the WiFi router even operates on a low-level operating system that is usually known as Router FIrmware & it affects all the settings of the router. The router firmware describes the security standards, instructions on which devices may connect, wireless settings, & much more.
Nowadays many of the modern routers restructured themselves in the backdrop without the user must make a try, but, for old routers you will need to keep the firmware advanced manually & it is completely worth it if you are worried on the security of the WiFi router.
Switch off WPS
Some years ago, there was a latest WiFi security feature known as WPS or Wi-Fi Protected Setup. WPS is a feature which lets you link to a WiFi router just with a push key or with a PIN still the moment this feature was launched, there came countless security defects with, mainly with the PIN method that may make it trouble-free for an unofficial device to access the network since a PIN code comprising of only numbers is much simpler to physical force & therefore anybody can effortlessly link to the Wi-Fi network.
Guest Network
With the feature Guest Network, the WiFi Router will help you a lot to increase the security of the WiFi router. The purpose behind this is that after you allow this feature afterward you are allowing the guest to access the WiFi network still without providing them access to the chief network. This is simply like the shared folders on your computer where all the guest users may even access them still, they cannot access the private, main folders.
The purpose behind this feature is that at times your family or friends might naively download something or open a file which may not just scatter malware across the network but even access the info shared throughout the network. It is not that your family members or friends are hackers, still they mistakenly access a file which may source all such issues for you. Therefore, when anybody is attached to the guest network & they open something wicked then it will not know how to access the key network or take charge of another gadgets & router.
One more benefit is that if somebody desires to alter the settings of the router still, they are attached to the guest network afterward they would not know how to do so. Guest networks have restrictions & for the major part, they only let the attached users access only the internet.
MAC Filtering
With the feature MAC Filtering may even increase the security of the Wi-Fi network. Through the MAC Filtering feature supported, you will need to list the MAC Address of the gadgets that you desire to blacklist or whitelist from connecting the network.
After you whitelist few gadgets then just the whitelisted gadgets will know how to join the network, the other devices will be obstructed from joining.
After you blacklist specific gadget then the blacklisted gadgets will not be capable of joining the network.