Secure your network
A few simple steps to keep your Wi-Fi network safe
As well as fine-tuning your network to get the best possible performance, it’s important to keep your network secure too. An insecure network can allow your neighbours to piggyback on your Wi-Fi and steal the precious bandwidth you’re paying for every month. Even worse is the risk that hackers might penetrate your network in order to spy on you, or to steal important personal information. We’ve even heard of (albeit rare) cases where hackers have threatened people in their own homes, by taking control of devices such as security cameras.
Stranger danger
It’s actually not too difficult to spot unauthorised devices that connect to your Wi-Fi network, as the apps provided with most modern routers automatically display a list of all connected devices, and generally allow you to quickly block them as well. And, of course, you should immediately change your password to stop it happening again. If your router doesn’t provide an app, then you can also use a web browser to log in to the router’s main control panel and check the security settings (although you might need to read the manual or get advice from your ISP).
Of course, it’s much better to prevent intruders from getting into your network in the first place and, as always, the best protection here is a good, strong password. Most routers do have a password already set on them before they leave the factory, but that password is also protected by an encryption system called WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). Like all technology, WPA gets updated every now and then, and – as we show below – your iOS devices will warn you if you need to update the settings on
your router. You might even need to upgrade and buy a new router if your old router doesn’t support at least WPA2 or WPA3.
Most routers enable you to ‘hide’ your network, so that the name of the network doesn’t show up in the list of local Wi-Fi networks that you can view on your Mac or iOS devices. A lot of people recommend this, but while hiding your network might deter neighbours from trying to piggyback on your Wi-Fi, it really won’t make much difference to anyone that really wants to spy on you, so you don’t really need to worry about this too much.
You should, however, turn off WPS. This is a feature that is supposed to make it easier to quickly connect a new device to your network – but the problem is that it actually makes things too easy, and it does risk leaving your network temporarily unprotected. Check to see if the router’s app or browser interface allows you to disable WPS. And while you’re at it, you should disable any ‘remote management’ features that allow you to connect to the router over the internet when you’re away from home – if you can connect from outside, then someone else can too.