How to Secure your Netgear Wireless Router

How often have you called your tech-savvy neighbor home and have him fixed your wireless router issues? Several times, Right! Did you ever try to think that he while fixing your problem might be infiltrating with your wireless security settings and exposing your wireless connection to unauthorized access? I guess, you have never checked on your friend or neighbor like that before.

Or, in a different case, you might have an unprotected wireless connection on which your neighbors or colleagues are logging in and taking account of everything that you do on the Internet or stealing bandwidth etc. This might be scary but it is true.

You must password protect your wireless router if you want to save your confidential information and prevent it from unauthorized access. Such people can ruin your life temporarily or forever by taking advantage of your insecure wireless connection. You may not believe my words but it did happen to a BUFFALO, New York-based homeowner who became prey to his young neighbor’s malicious, stealth modus-operandi (read this:http://www.pjstar.com/free/x1923755260/Buffalo-child-porn-case-shows-Wi-Fi-privacy-dangers. So do not let some one take advantage of your wireless network and router. Check these steps and secure your Netgear wireless router.

1. Connect your PC to the Netgear device using an Ethernet cable. Plug the cable’s one end into the back of PC’s Ethernet port and the other end into any one of the 4 LAN ports at the back of the router.

2. Ensure that all the lights are lit on the router, if any of the lights is not lit then recheck the wire and connection.

3. Open your Internet browser viz. Internet Explorer, FireFox etc.

4. Type ‘http://192.168.0.1’ (without quotes) in the address bar of your Internet browser and hit ‘Enter’. You can also use ‘http://192.168.1.1’ (without quotes) to open the router login page.

5. When the login page comes up, type your username and password that had come with your router credentials. 

6. From the left hand side panel, under the ‘Setup’ category, click ‘Wireless Settings’

7. In the ‘Wireless Network’ section, type whatever name you want to give to your wireless network in the first box that says ‘Name (SSID):’

8. In the ‘Security Options’ section, click on the last option ‘WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]’

9. Under the ‘Security Options (WPA-PSK + WPA2-PSK)’ section below, type in your desired wireless network key in the box that says ‘Passphrase ……. (8-63 characters or 64 hex digits)’.

10. Before clicking the ‘Apply’ button, note down the network name, key, and security option on a piece of paper or on a notepad in your computer as you would require these details to connect to your wireless network.

11. Click ‘Apply’ and exit the window.

***If there is a modem connected between your PC and router, disconnect it from the computer by unplugging the Ethernet cable from the back of modem and computer both. Now, reconnect the computer and router by following the first point at the top.