WiFi security: is my connection secure?

Internet security is vital to ensure you can protect your identity and data online. You can do a lot of work to minimise the risks of using the internet on some websites, but protecting your home network is equally important. Take a look at our top tips to discover how to boost your WiFi security and stay safe online.

Choose a strong WiFi password

It’s a simple move, but a crucial one. Many WiFi networks do not have a password at all, which is almost criminal for how easy it is to set up and the increase in security it provides. Most routers these days do come with a password set up, but we recommend that you change the password they come with. Here are some important factors to consider when creating a new password:

• Do not use easily guessed elements in your password- these include whole words, or important dates in your life, like birthdays or anniversaries.
• Where possible, use numbers and characters to break up parts of your password.
• Longer passwords are much better. The time to ‘brute force’ (guess with a computer) a password with anything less than 7 characters takes less than a minute. Whereas, an 8-character password takes 5 hours, and a 9-character password takes 5 days. You do the math!

Keep your router software up to date

Everybody knows the annoying feeling of a software update popping up when you are in the middle of something. However, these updates do have an important security function. They contain patches from the software provider that help close security loopholes.

Next time you get a software update pop-up, make sure you click accept! At Airband, all of our routers come with WPa2-PSK, the latest security framework included from the jump.

Run a guest WiFi network

Many smart devices are set up to automatically work with anything logged into the same network. Whilst printers and speakers may not offer much security issues, smart home devices like an Alexa can do a surprising amount of damage. As such, running a guest WiFi network allows your friends to still use your connection, but limits the inherent security risks too.

Choose a connection you can trust

Here at Airband, we add security features in for free with every connection. For example, our DNS provider runs through a security filter which ensures that only the information our customers ask for enters their homes – other parties cannot send data through or observe what you are doing online. The other security feature is our triple layer PPPoE. This means every Airband connection has a unique ID, and only those IDs can access Airband-transmitted data, preventing your data being stolen.

To see if you can benefit from these security features, visit our coverage checker today.

Want more tips to boost your connection? You’ll want to discover our blog on how to troubleshoot your wifi router issues in that case – we’ve got tips a plenty!