Keeping secure networks: 6 tips for wi-fi best practices at the office
Today, we pretty much expect that we can connect anywhere, anytime. With all sorts of smart phones, iPods, and other tablets that are wi-fi enabled, we are on the internet constantly, but it's important not to take that convenience for granted.
Even though it's a nice-to-have, your office security can easily be compromised if your wi-fi isn’t properly configured or managed. Here are the best practices to follow:
1. Have a separate wi-fi hot spot for guests. Don’t give guests (or your employees) the wifi password to the business network.
2. Use strong encryption for your SSID, not a wimpy WEP passphrase
3. Use business class equipment, not consumer grade. Hackers target SMBs, thinking we're an easy crack compared to larger corporations. But no matter what your business size, business class equipment is best suited to keep yu safe by providing enhanced protection at the firewall.
4. A wireless site survey is a good way to reveal your weak coverage spots. A survey is an important step if you will use wireless as your primary network connectivity (e.g. a medical practice that uses tablets).
5. to help improve your signal, include Power over Ethernet equipment to allow for adding wireless access points in difficult areas.
6. The future is already here. The next wave of wi-fi is 5GHz: it's betterm faster and more secure. Make sure to plan ahead before your network becomes obsolete.
All of this sound too "geek?" No problem. Give us a call and ask for a secure wireless network. We can help you before you resort to Googling wifi and sorting through the 723,000,000+ search results!
