I received a question recently from a parent (and proud grandparent) regarding wireless security.

Q: I have two computers at home, one a PC connected to my router by a cable and the other a laptop that is connected wirelessly to the router. In setting up the router I did have to put in something called an encryption key as part of the set-up process. Is the system secure or do I need to do something else to secure the information on my two computers?

A: Excellent question, and certainly one many folks don’t even think of.

I use wireless at my house as well, but I can easily pick up the wireless networks around my neighborhood that do NOT have security installed. I have often thought that I would go door to door telling my neighbors their wireless network is not secure and for $50 I could secure it in an hour, but laziness prevailed.

If you set up encryption on your wireless router, and had to enter a passkey on your computer to access the wireless network in your house, you should be pretty safe. Sure, they are crackable, but it takes time and effort, and people with that kind of time and who are willing to take the effort would rather break into the wireless network of a business or someone they know than a random fellow.

I will quickly go over setting up security on your wireless router and give some tips on how to make it even more secure.

Your router has an IP address. Most come out of the box with an IP address of 192.168.0.1. This is changeable, but there's no real need to change it unless you have more than one wireless network. By typing that IP address into your web browser, you will be asked for a user name and password (see your manual for defaults). NEVER leave them as the default. Leaving the username "admin" is fine, but change your password. While you are at it, write the IP address, username, and password on top of your router. Don’t worry, few will see it, and writing on it will not damage it. Once inside your router's configuration page, go to a place that may be labeled "Wireless" or "Security" or even "Encryption" (all routers are different) and from here you can configure your router's security.

The first thing I would change here is the name of your router, also known as the SSID. Linksys routers come out of the box with the name "Linksys". This means if someone in your neighborhood is looking for some free wireless connection, they will see "Linksys" as the name of a network and assume quickly that it is an easy network to break into because the user (you) didn’t bother changing anything, much less the name. Never name your wireless router your name, your street, or use any other identifiable information. Make it basic. You really just want to name it something that you can identify as your wireless network when you need to connect. There is one in my neighborhood named "Chris", one named "HP" (which I assume is an HP brand router) and one named "Linksys" — all of which are unsecured (but I don’t need theirs, I have my own).