A quick list of steps you can take to help secure your wireless network: 1. Changing the password: the first thing that should be done when you install a wireless access point is change the administrative password. Access points have a built in Web-based setup page that you can configure the configuration settings. It is protected by a user name and password and is set to default values that are easy for someone to guess. By changing those users will not be able to access your configuration by using the original default passwords. 2. Securing the SSID: This identifies the network. A client must know the access points SSID in order to get into the wireless network. By preventing unauthorized clients from discovering the SSID, you prevent them from accessing your network. Things you can do to secure the SSID: * Change the default value on the SSID
* Disable the automatic broadcast so client computers have to know the SSID before they connect. * Disable guest mode, which allows users to connect without knowing the SSID. 3. Enabling WEP: This is a data encryption feature designed to make wireless transmission secure in a network scrambling data before transmission Make sure this feature is turned on. 4. Using MAC address filtering: allow you to specify a list of hardware MAC addresses for computers that are allowed to access the network. The access point denies access to anyone with a different address that is not on your network. 5. Placing access points outside the firewall: By placing your access points outside your networks firewall users will have to travel through the firewall to access the network