How to Secure Your Home Wi-Fi Network for Remote Work
When you are working from home, you have to protect more than just yourself. That means that your home network needs to be secure enough to support your devices safely, and all of your company-owned devices and resources.
It’s one thing to make sure that you are protected on your home Wi-Fi network. But when you bring home devices that your company has issued you, you run the risk of vulnerabilities to yourself and your company. Things like viruses and hackers can either get to you from your company or vice versa.
Overall, network security is key. Here’s what you can do to make sure that your home Wi-Fi network is secure for your remote working conditions:
Optimize Your Home Network for Performance and Security
Make sure that your network is performing at its best. This will ensure it is not only fast and reliable, but also secured.
You can do this by checking a few things:
- Your router: Is your router updated and placed in a central location?
- Your Wi-Fi signal strength: Is your wireless internet signal strength strong enough to support all of your devices and online activity?
- Your Wi-Fi speed: Likewise, is your wireless internet speed fast, creating a reliable connection every time?
- Your Wi-Fi security: Are both your network address and password unique and strong? Do you have advanced security measures in place to protect your privacy and keep hackers out?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then it’s likely that your wireless network is optimized for its best performance.
If you cannot answer yes to any or most of these questions, this is the place to start with securing your home Wi-Fi.
Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Securing your home Wi-Fi network for remote work is two-fold: it protects you but also your company. And when your company is protected, so is every other employee, not just you.
You can make sure everyone is protected by setting up and using a virtual private network (VPN).
The purpose of a VPN is to create a secure connection for sending and receiving data. This way, you can access important information and files like you would within your office, but from the comfort (and security) of your home.
VPNs mask your IP address so that your online activity is virtually untraceable. This means that it’s much harder for cyber criminals to notice your activity and hack in to either your personal information or your company’s.
Turn to Managed WiFi
Managed Wi-Fi is a tool to maintain and support your entire home WiFi network. It helps remove congestion on your network so that it runs faster, clearer and safer. Managing your Wi-Fi is equivalent to improving your Wi-Fi performance.
Managed Wi-Fi benefits include:
- Monitoring the performance of your router and all devices connected to your network
- Removing unwanted guests/devices connecting to your Wi-Fi
- Monitoring your Wi-Fi signal strength, speed and network bandwidth
- Managing Wi-Fi extenders, guest networks, and other coverage metrics
- Machine learning for immediate alerts and troubleshooting
But the most important factor to managing your Wi-Fi for working remotely – and in general – is the advanced security.
Think of managed Wi-Fi as a 24/7 IT support. When you aren’t in an office with an entire IT staff to run things for you, a Wi-Fi management solution platform will do the job in their place.
OptimTM Managed Wi-Fi solution is a available through reputable Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Call your Service Provider and ask if they offer Optim Managed WiFi.
When your home WiFi is safe and running smoother, you won’t regret making that call.
Together, these tips will help make your wireless home network a safer place to work remote.
Want to learn more about managing your home wireless network? To learn more or find out if Optim is available to you, check out Actiontec’s Home Networking Solutions guide.