Home Network settings

Dear Readers,

Every internet users have network settings connected to our PC where the packets are transfered. Most of the laptop users connect to internet via wifi which is known as Wireless local area network based on IEEE 802.11 standard.

If time permit let me explain you the wifi concept in detail. Coming back to our title as all laptop/notebook users connect to internet via wifi which has routers for signal transmission. A router is a networking device whose software and hardware are customized to the tasks of routing and forwarding the information from modem to our laptop/notebook.

These routers are very important for data transmission. Depending on the cost of routers the signal strength and security measures vary.

Router has it's own MAC ID and it's ip address which is called as gateway. Router software will vary as per the manufactures. This software has the option to setup network name , password and other personal settings. 80% of the home users will be connecting to their network with network name & password alone. What happens is when we connect with this type of connectivity it's easy to crack the network and password. I have wondered myself when i saw 10 users connected to my network without my knowledge.

The slowness in connectivity, traffic in our network will irritate us very often. This is because we may not know whether our network is secured and we are the only users to this network. Many of us call to the internet provider and shout to them stating the network is very slow. Before we complain to the internet provider we should make sure whether our network settings are good and secured.

I use to check the following measures before i call them up.

1. Connect the laptop to modem and check the speed of the internet.
2. If the download and upload speed is good then we are okay else call the provider right away. Repeat the same by connecting with router.
3. If the speed difference is huge then the issue is with router. Login to router settings and check who are the users connected to the network.
4. If you are the only user or the known users are connected then probably the signal is very less with router. Buy a new router with good signal strength.
5. In case more users are connected to the router then your router may not be protected with password/ router password is distributed/ your router is hacked :(. You have no other choice to change password immediately. This is very serious.

In such cases i strongly recommend you all to connect the routers with MAC ID along with password protected.  Change the settings as below

• Make your network invisible
• Have router password as more complex one with more than 8 char length. 
• Connect the users with MAC ID which is unique to all system. Now even the password is distributed the users cannot connect if this network as that MAC ID is permitted to this network. 

This way we can secure our home network.