Securing Your Home Network

You have probably read about how people are able to gain access to an individual's computer and essentially steal all their personal data. There are many ways that this can be done without the owner even knowing that someone is trawling around within their computer right under their nose. There a few simple steps that you can do to safeguard your personal information from internet predators.

Your home network is your first step to securing your personal data from the outside. You should have a secure perimeter network that stops any potential intruders from accessing your data. It is by far better to stop intruders at the perimeter rather than at your computer. Make sure that you have a hardware firewall enabled at the point where your home equipment connects to your internet connection. Hardware firewalls are more difficult to hack and do a good job of keeping unwanted eyes from seeing your personal computer.

A hardware firewall for homes normally comes in the form of a router. Some people have a modem connected to their internet connection but these do not come with a hardware firewall and are not secure. Make sure that you are using a router with a hardware firewall between your computer and the internet connection. If you are not sure which one has been supplied by your service provider, have a look at the original documentation or phone your service provider and ask them.

Most routers provided by internet service providers are wireless. This means that if you have a laptop, you can connect to the internet using a wireless network card from your laptop to the router, and finally out onto the internet. Even if you don't have a laptop and use a desktop computer, the router from your service provider will still have the wireless functionality enabled. This wireless connection broadcasts a name called an SSID. This can be picked up by any wireless device normally within a 50m radius of your home. You need to make sure that the wireless broadcast is switched off if you do not use it. If you have a laptop and use it to connect to the internet wirelessly, make sure that it uses an encryption key to secure all communications. The older type of encryption is WEP and is now less secure; you should be using WPA which is more secure. Read the documentation that came with the router on how to configure encryption on your router.

How to Secure Your Computer?

Computer security is extremely imperative for anyone who uses the internet. As there are millions of people using the internet for various purposes, they are exposed to a number of threats all the time. Viruses, malware, hackers etc. can access your system and misuse your data or information. It would not only hinder your privacy but may also cause some financial or material threats to use. However, to remain safe from such perils, there are a number of computer security measures which can help you to remain safe and work in a trouble free environment. Here are some measures which you need to take to secure your PC:

1. Firstly, it is vital to have anti virus program in your system. these software protect you against number of perils such as the attach of various viruses etc. they scan your system for any harmful stuff which may have entered it by means of the internet and thus purge your PC from it. Viruses can damage your files and lead to data loss which may create serious problems for you. Some viruses can damage your entire system as well. So have a good anti virus program and update is regularly.
2. It is also vital to use strong passwords and not to share them with others. Your passwords should be long so that hackers may not access your system and misuse your confidential data.
3. When you have to shop online, it is very important to use reliable e-commerce sites only. This is for the reason that there can be scams and when you give your personal information such as your credit card number, contact information etc. it can be misused. So shopping from reputable sites is imperative for computer security.
4. Making use of web browser as well as security functions of operating system can also help you to secure your system. You need to see to these features and ascertain that you are making use of the fully for computer security.
5. It is also very important to have backup data so that in case of any mishap, your information can be retrieved.