Keep your neighbours from hijacking your Wi-Fi

By Jeandre de Beer / Pc World

Question : ROSE SAYS that her Internet service intermittently  slows to a crawl, and that she wants to take steps to make sure that her neighbors haven’t hacked into her Wi-Fi network for free connectivity.

Answer : A NUMBER OF issues can produce intermittently slow Internet access, and most of them don’t involve foul play. You could have faulty cables, a bad modem or router, or outdated firmware on either of those devices.

The problem may be with your ISP, and therefore out of your hands. 

As much as we would like to think otherwise, however, your problem very well could be with a dishonest neighbour.

And in these days of data caps, such sneaky neighbors could be running up your Internet service bill as they’re slowing down your network’s connection.

I’m assuming that you've password-protected your Wi-Fi network already. If you haven’t, check your router’s documentation and do so immediately.

Even with a password, nothing is ever completely secure, and Wi-Fi networks can be cracked. You need to take extra precautions.

So how can you keep your neighbours from hijacking your Wi-Fi?

Start with a strong password

Every technique I’ve seen for cracking Wi-Fi networks involves either a dictionary or a brute-force attack. You can protect yourself against these kinds of intrusions by crafting a strong password.

Use a long, random string of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and punctuation, and avoid anything found in the dictionary.

Since you and other people will type this password manually from time to time, avoid lowercase l, uppercase I and O, and the digits 1 and 0 to prevent confusion when people read the password and attempt to re-create it on a keyboard.

Test the password’s strength by going to How Secure Is My Password

You can go to howsecureismypassword.net which estimates how long a standard PC would take to crack your password. If the estimated time is more than a million years, consider the password safe.

The usual complaint against strong passwords—they’re too difficult to remember and type—doesn’t apply in this case. You have to type this password only when you’re setting up a new Wi-Fi device, or when you’re helping a guest who brought their device to your home.

You can keep the password on a scrap of paper, or store it in a password manager. Of course, if you’re worried that a neighbor has already cracked your  Wi-Fi connection, changing the password will push them off of the network immediately.

In addition, make sure that your Wi-Fi network’s security is properly set up.

Go into your router’s settings screen and check the options listed there. Ideally you should be using WPA2 encryption.

If your equipment doesn’t support WPA2, use WPA-Personal—or better yet, buy a new router.

IT Experts are specialists in this field –  contact us for any assistance that you need.

In a matter of minutes we can remotely log into your computer – safely and securely – to assist you with any issues you might experience. What is remote support? Click here to find out.

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