How to set up your wireless router

Setting up a wireless network is not a Herculean task; but one that should not be taken lightly. By default there is no security set up on your wireless router so it is something you need to take care of once you get the device home.

The tasks you need to complete in order to set up your wireless network are:

1. Change the administrative password to a strong password.
2. Pick the SSID. This is the name of your wireless network.
3. Decide on your security model:
- Completely open to anyone (not recommended)
- Open to those that know the password
- Open only to certain computers (usually done via each computer’s MAC address)
- Wireless encryption (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) for the traffic going to the internet via the wireless router

Your administrative password or WEP/WPA passphrase should not be a word you can find in a dictionary. It should be a combination of letters (both upper and lower case) and numbers at minimum. You can also have special characters like "!", "*", "$" in the password as well. Having upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters will make your password difficult for someone to guess.

As for the security model, most people pick having their wireless network open to those that know a special password along with having some sort of encryption for the wireless traffic. WEP or WPA/WPA2 is the way to go in this regard. Which one is the better protocol? The debate does rage on. Suffice it to say most of the debate goes in favor of WPA/WPA2. They key to your wireless security is in passwords or passphrases. If you have a complex password your overall wireless security will be better.