Wire Blast » Wireless Improvements

How to Secure your Wireless Network

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:13:23 +0000

Today, almost every house and business in the nation is equipped with wireless internet. Unfortunately, though the low cost and easy set up of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) are beneficial to most; the widespread use of wireless networks allows network intruders to take precedence over unprotected WLANs. To prevent these unwanted intrusions, take these simple precautions that will strengthen your security and reduce the risk of wireless hacking.

Secure your wireless router and access point with a password. Many people skip this step and leave their network accessible by anyone in the vicinity. Even more people use the password feature but use passwords that are embarrassingly easy to guess. Think of a secure password that will prevent unwanted users with unwanted intentions.
Don’t broadcast your Service Set Identifier (SSID). This way, when you or anyone near you goes to connect to a wireless network, the name of your network and the option to connect to it will be invisible.
Enable Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption instead of Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP). WEP encryption has many weaknesses that make it extremely vulnerable to hackers. WPA is easier to use and provides much better protection. If you have a Windows XP or modern hardware, the WPA support is most likely built in. However, if your wireless device only supports WEP encryption, the protection it provides is still better than nothing. Choose a complex encryption key and change it often to get optimal protection.
Use Media Access Control (MAC) filtering for access control. MAC addresses are unique to specific network adaptors, enabling you to limit network access to systems you approve. To use MAC filtering, enter the 12 character MAC address of the systems you approve to connect to the network. While this may be inconvenient, it builds a strong wall of protection against intruders.
Lower the power of your WLAN transmitter. Reducing the range of the signal reduces the perimeter the signal reaches so outsiders won’t have as good a chance of connecting.

Thoughts on the State of Wireless Technologies including Wireless Internet

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:10:49 +0000

Let’s take a minute to ponder all the ways that wireless technology can be helpful. Let’s start with the most basic form of wireless that most of us make use of: a cordless telephone. Yeah it’s wireless, but it’s not really anything that special anymore, right? They’ve been around for ages and are limited to sending what you say through the air to the receiver in the next room. Technology should be able to produce something more powerful than that by now.Wireless routers raised the ante for a while because they allowed you to share your internet connection with all nearby supported devices, including computers with wireless network adapters. Because of all the things the internet can do, this was a pretty big advance for its time. But once again, these have also been around for a while and are also limited to sending information to the next room.The connection provided by Clear 4G wireless internet is an example of a wireless technology that’s a lot more impressive. Clear 4G is a wireless internet service provider. It’s like cable or DSL but without the wires and inconvenience. It is capable of sending a signal not just into the next room, but across a whole city. We’re not talking about wireless internet that goes a few hundred feet. We’re talking about wireless internet that is spread out over many, many miles. You might not even be able to see where the signal is coming from. And it’s no slouch; it offers bandwidth that rivals and sometimes surpasses the bandwidth provided by connections such as cable or DSL.With Clear 4G, you can experience the internet in your home almost anywhere without wires and at full speed. If that’s not impressive to you, what is? It doesn’t get much better than that. The future will be amazing indeed when the bar is raised again, but until then there’s Clear 4G wireless internet.

The Latest in Wireless Goes Far Beyond the Traditional Hotspot

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:09:06 +0000

Wireless hotspots have long been advertised as being the most convenient form of internet access for modern, professional men and women. After all, they supposedly offer the promise of mobility and cut out all that hassle of having to deal with cableswhat could be more convenient, right? In reality, traditional hotspots are not quite what they’ve been made out to be and wireless internet users have got far better options on the table to considersuch as a hotspot that goes where they go!Using hotspots that are scattered throughout your city as some sort of patchwork, piecemeal mobile communications solution is just not practicable in the least. First of all, your mobile device may not be compatible with the various kinds of mobile standards being used by different wireless networks which will prevent you from even connecting; then, the speeds available on many such wireless networks may often be truly dismal, not even breaking the barrier between Kbps and Mbps. Between frequent interruptions in the service and slow downloads/uploads, it’s not difficult to see why this panorama isn’t very convincing.Enter CLEAR 4G wireless internet, the mobile solution that literally let’s you bring your hotspot wherever you want it. Through the use of their small-yet-powerful wireless modems, accessing their network is possible from a nearly infinite variety of locations throughout the country. All thanks to the smartest wireless transmission system ever developed, of which WiMax (WiFi’s vastly superior successor) could be seen as the cornerstone.CLEAR 4G wireless internet has changed the nature of the wireless game so drastically that the term ‘hotspot’ now actually seems painfully quiche and outdated. CLEAR subscribers know that they have got a coverage area much larger than they could possibly need and that it is one massive hotspot for them to take advantage of, how and when they feel like it.