The first step in

securing your home network

is to familiarize yourself with your

router's control panel

. First, you'll want to

find your router's IP address

and

login to your router

. There are some

common router passwords

that manufacturers use so if you haven't changed your router's password, you'll find it in the documentation that came with it. In this 10-part series is to take some of the mystery out of the router and allow you to be comfortable with it... it's not as hard as you may think to

set up your own home network

.

In

setting up your home network

each computer and device that accesses the network must have it's own IP address. If you want to get really involved with

managing the IP addresses

on your home network, you can

assign IP addresses and IP address leases manually

. For most of us though, it's much easier to turn this job over to a process called

dynamic host configuration protocol or DHCP

.

The

SSID of your network

is a funny way of saying "friendly network name." An SSID helps you to

find your network

when you're trying to connect new devices. Changing your router's name has the benefit of making it easier to find for family and friends you want to allow to connect. However, changing your router's SSID from the default name has the added benefit of

deterring would-be hackers

by giving them one less key piece of information about your network. Specifically, what brand of router you have.

It's great having a wireless network via your router, but it's important to

make sure your network is secure

. There are a number of ways available in the router, to

make your network safe and secure

. Our goal is to show you the best ways currently available and not bog you down with terminology.

Any 'techspert' will tell you that the first thing you should do after powering on your

wireless router

is to

set the security options to avoid unwanted intruders on your wireless network

.

WPA2

is the best means to

secure your wireless router

currently available on consumer level networks. While there are several

security options on your wireless router

, the consensus is that

WPA2

gives the

best protection for both home and enterprise networks

currently available.

Every network adapter and network interface card comes with a unique identifier. This identifier is called the

MAC address

and "MAC" stands for

media access control

. By telling your router which device MAC addresses can connect to your network, you add another layer of

powerful security to your wireless home network

.

We've talked about securing your wireless network in a number of ways. There are times, however, when you may want to

restrict access to the Internet

for those who already have access to the network. You can

block access to certain keywords or specific Web sites

or

block kids' Internet access after a certain time

and much more. You can do all of this via access restrictions in your router.

In addition to restricting access by day or time, you can also

restrict access to specific Web sites

. If you wish you can also

restrict access to individual services like FTP, POP, SMTP

, and so on. You can also use keywords to

block certain types of Web sites or block entire URLs

.

Every router has an

administration section

where you can keep things running smoothly. Whether it's

changing the password, turning on a log file, or doing a firmware upgrade

, it's all right there for you.

There are times when you need to

know key information about your router

and it's functions. At those times you can

check the status area of your router's

setup to get exactly what you need. Also, if your Internet access goes down, you can check if the problem is with your ISP or whether something has gone wrong with your home network.