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	WIFI Story By James Mason ( www.closetgeek.net or www.jamesmason.ca ) WIFI networks in your home, it's not just for geeks anymore. A home wireless network is one of the wisest decisions you can make if you own multiple computers and want to share one broadband connection, check your e-mail from your laptop in the back yard or if you want to share hardware like a printer over multiple machines. But setting up a wireless network involves a little bit more than buying the router installing it and then start surfing from your swimming pool. The secret to a good reliable wireless network starts where all things involving the internet start – security. If you have a router and wireless network you have to take steps to ensure that nobody can get onto your wireless network and use your bandwidth to download illegal files like MP3's from Peer to Peer networks like Kazaa, or worse yet use your IP address to commit cyber crimes l ike harassment or downloading child pornography. All routers regardless of their name brand or standard have security protocols or filters built in to their hardware, which allows the network administrator (the router's owner) to decide who can and cannot use the bandwidth to surf the net. Once you have the router installed correctly and functioning without any major problems, you need to go to your routers settings and tweak the default configurations First we'll start with the basics, your network password. By default all routers come with the same password, for example Linksys routers use admin as the initial password, you should change this setting immediately because a hacker also knows this is the default password. Common sense prevails when you are creating a password,  try to use a combination of upper and lower case letters and make sure you use numbers as well, this will help prevent what are known as dictionary attacks and is an important step in making your network secure. The next thing you need to do is change the name of your wireless network or the SSID Broadcast. By design most routers use something like home or default when first activated, you should change this to something more personal like “The Smith Family”. Then you should disable SSID Broadcasts, this will help prevent your Wireless Access Point (WAP) from becoming a hackers haven by helping to disguise your WAP. Another important step is to enable Wired Equivalent Privacy Encryption or WEP keys. WEP keys are a password that a user must correctly enter in order to access a WAP. Again make sure your password is unique and a combination of letters and numbers. Remember WEP keys are like a combination to a safe, so don't give them out to just anybody, and make sure you change your WEP keys on a regular basis. And finally you should enable MAC Address Filtering. All computers and network capable electronic devices are assigned a MAC Address when they are manufactured. A MAC Address is like an IP address as no two devices will ever have the same combination of letters and numbers. In your router's configuration you can enable MAC Address filtering which will then allow only devices with specific MAC Addresses to access your WAP, making it next to impossible for hackers to access your network with a random MAC Address. Now of course this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to securing a wireless network, but these are the initial things you need to do to safely run a WAP out of your home office. There are also some good free programs available that will monitor your WIFI network and let you know who is on your network and where they are surfing. One of the best is an application called Air Snare. Air Snare is an intrusion detection system which will constantly monitor your network and should someone attempt to hack in your WAP the program will send a desktop alert to that individual l etting them know that they are attempting to access a private network and that their IP address has been logged. You can download Air Snare at http://home.comcast.net/~jay.deboer/airsnare/ . Wireless networks are one of the most convenient features of a home with a broadband connection. But remember convenience always comes with a price, and in the case of a wireless router disabling your SSID broadcast, regularly changing your passwords and WEP keys are vital to ensuring that not just anyone can use your bandwidth for illegal and illegitimate purposes.