But you should also keep in mind the importance of changing the password to access the router. It’s not just the Wi-Fi password that matters, but the one you use to access settings. From the factory it is usually of type 1234, admin123 and similar. You must use a different one at all times.
encryption type
Beyond the password, you can also check if your Wi-Fi is secure by looking at what kind of encryption are you using. Here you will find different options, but not all of them are safe. Therefore, choosing one or the other can make a difference to achieve greater protection of your wireless network.
What encryption should you use? Today the most secure of all is WPA-3. However, it is not yet compatible with all routers and devices. In that case you would have to use WPA-2. The ones you should avoid at all costs are ciphers like WEP and WPA-1, which are outdated and can be exploited.
upgraded router
You should also keep in mind the importance of keep router up to date correctly. Vulnerabilities can arise and be exploited by attacks. It is necessary to have the latest version of the firmware and avoid this type of problem and, at the same time, improve the performance of the router.
Therefore, to know if your Wi-Fi network is protected, you should also check that the router is up to date. Check that you have the latest version, go to the official website of the brand and look at the model you use to see which one it is and thus compare. If necessary, install the latest version available.
Applications and services to see security
We have shown the main steps you need to take to see if your Wi-Fi network is protected. However, you can also use some applications and online services that will be very useful. They will help you obtain certain data from your network and thus determine if it complies with what we have explained above.
Acrylic Wi-Fi
We can say that Acrylic Wi-Fi is one of the most complete applications to be able to analyze wireless networks, find out which channels are more saturated, the type of security what you use etc. It is an option with which we are going to be able to better control our Wi-Fi network, know if it is protected and if it works well.
To use it you have to download the application from its official website. You will find both the Home version, which is free, and another more complete paid version. From there, once you install it, it will start scanning networks and will show you all the available ones. You will see information about each of them.
If you see that yours in particular has a deprecated encryption, you know it’s not really protected. You should choose to change the encryption type for the Wi-Fi password to prevent intruders from entering.
vistumbler
One of the programs that you can use is Vistumbler. It is available for Windows and allows obtaining certain details of your Wi-Fi connection to determine if it is secure or there may be some vulnerability. It is not a complex program, nor does it display a lot of information; but some points such as the type of encryption.
The first thing you have to do is go to their website and download the application there. We always recommend downloading programs of this type from official sources and avoid third-party sites that can be a security problem. Once you have downloaded it, you will only have to install it. A first window will automatically appear, as it appears in the image below.
you have to give Scan APs and it will automatically start scanning all the networks around you. It will show you different data, such as the MAC address, the SSID, the signal percentage or the type of encryption it uses. The latter is what interests us in our case, since it will indicate whether we use adequate encryption or not. You can also check that you have changed the network name that came from the factory, something that, although it is not a security measure as such, can be useful.
Router keygen
A different alternative is Router Keygen. It is an application that you can use in Android, so it is very useful to analyze a Wi-Fi network from the mobile and know if it is reliable or not. The first thing you should do is download it from the official Google Play store. It works without root on any device.
It is a very simple program where you will not have to do much. You just have to install and run it. It will automatically scan networks and show you if any are vulnerable or not. What does it mean to be vulnerable? Basically it means that an attacker could take advantage of the fact that it uses an outdated encryption, use the key that comes from the factory with the router, etc.
If all is well, if your Wi-Fi network is protected, you should see a message above indicating “Not supported”. This means that this or these networks are not insecure and, therefore, it will be very difficult for a possible intruder to access.
F-Secure Router Checker
This option is different from the others. It is not an application that you install on your computer or mobile, but rather a Web page that you can open directly in the browser. What this page does is check if the router settings are safe. In case it finds something strange, some problem that affects security, it will issue a warning.
To use it you have to enter their website. There you will see a button to check the router. Once pressed, it will automatically start to perform a scan to detect problems. If it does not detect anything, it will show you a new window as we see below.
With this we can verify that our router is well protected and that there are no nothing strange in the configuration. In case there is something that could affect security, you would simply have to change it in the settings of the device.
In short, by following these steps you can check if your Wi-Fi network is protected or has any vulnerability. It is important that you review the points that we have explained and thus you will avoid intruders that can compromise both the proper functioning of the connection, as well as your own privacy.
