WEBVTT - Securing Your Wifi Router

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where

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<v Speaker 1>smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question. Can

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<v Speaker 1>you be arrested for downloading child porn even if you

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<v Speaker 1>never do? And the fact is that you can. There

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<v Speaker 1>have been several recent arrests that should send shivers down

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<v Speaker 1>the spine of anyone who has installed a wireless router,

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<v Speaker 1>also known as a WiFi router. These little boxes allow

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<v Speaker 1>your laptop, your iPad, and other wireless devices to connect

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<v Speaker 1>to the internet. Tens of millions of people in the

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<v Speaker 1>United States have installed wireless routers because they make it

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<v Speaker 1>so easy to connect to the Internet. It turns out

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<v Speaker 1>that if you install a wireless router, and if you

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<v Speaker 1>leave it in its default settings and you turn it on,

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<v Speaker 1>you've opened yourself up to a major vulnerability. Your new

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<v Speaker 1>wireless router creates a wide open WiFi hot spot with

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<v Speaker 1>a diameter of several hundred feet. Because you have used

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<v Speaker 1>the default settings, which means that you have set no

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<v Speaker 1>password to prevent people from connecting, anyone nearby can now

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<v Speaker 1>connect into your hot spot. It could be a neighbor,

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<v Speaker 1>the guest of a neighbor, or someone parked on a

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<v Speaker 1>nearby street. Because you have no password on your router,

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<v Speaker 1>anyone nearby can connect to your router in just a

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<v Speaker 1>few seconds. When they connect, you will not know that

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<v Speaker 1>it's happening unless you were to get in and look

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<v Speaker 1>at the routers log files and its tools and so on.

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<v Speaker 1>And you may not ever care. If they read a

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<v Speaker 1>few web pages or check their email with your connection,

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<v Speaker 1>that tiny bit of bandwidth they use would be imperceptible.

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<v Speaker 1>But if they start watching a streaming video off of

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube or Netflix, you may notice that your connection has

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<v Speaker 1>gotten really sluggish, and you may have no idea why.

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<v Speaker 1>The bigger problem, however, is child porn. If the person

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<v Speaker 1>connected to your hot spot downloads child pern bography, or

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<v Speaker 1>any other illegal material, federal agents are going to trace

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<v Speaker 1>the illegal activity to your wireless router, and then they're

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<v Speaker 1>gonna come after you. Once they find you, the attitude

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<v Speaker 1>will be to arrest now and ask questions later. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>the person who did the downloading is invisible. It may

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<v Speaker 1>take days or weeks for your innocence to be confirmed.

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<v Speaker 1>And the amazing thing is that you will have no

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<v Speaker 1>idea that it's happening at the time it's happening. So

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<v Speaker 1>what can you do to prevent this scenario from unfolding.

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<v Speaker 1>There are actually three different things you can do, all

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<v Speaker 1>of which require a little bit of fiddling with your router.

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<v Speaker 1>If you are not technology minded, this fiddling may be

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<v Speaker 1>uncomfortable and you may want to enlist the help of

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<v Speaker 1>a friend who is technology minded or hire someone to

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<v Speaker 1>configure things. The basic idea is that your WiFi router

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<v Speaker 1>has a way to manipulate its settings. You need to

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<v Speaker 1>log into the router and at the very least set

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<v Speaker 1>up a WiFi password. How do you log into the router?

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<v Speaker 1>The owner's manual for the router will contain instructions on

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<v Speaker 1>how to do this. If you can't find the manual

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<v Speaker 1>that came with your router, you can find it on

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<v Speaker 1>the internet by typing the model number into a search engine.

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<v Speaker 1>Some routers even come with a CD that will help

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<v Speaker 1>you through these steps. So what you do is you

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<v Speaker 1>log into your router, find the wireless settings page, and

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<v Speaker 1>create something called a w P A password for your router,

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<v Speaker 1>not a web password. A w P A password is

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<v Speaker 1>the kind of password you would like to create. This

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<v Speaker 1>is one of those things that takes thirty seconds. If

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<v Speaker 1>you know what you're doing. As soon as you set

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<v Speaker 1>that password, you've eliminated the threat of accidental arrests for

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<v Speaker 1>child porn. Of course, you've also just disconnected all your

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<v Speaker 1>own devices as well. They can't connect in now that

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<v Speaker 1>you've set a password, So now you need to go

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<v Speaker 1>to your laptop, your iPad, and all your other devices

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<v Speaker 1>and type in the password there as well. They will

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<v Speaker 1>then be able to reconnect to your password protected wireless

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<v Speaker 1>rout uter, and chances are you will never have to

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<v Speaker 1>think about it again. If you want to be even

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<v Speaker 1>more secure, there are two other things you can do.

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<v Speaker 1>The first thing is to turn off something called S

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<v Speaker 1>s i D broadcasting. This is a feature that makes

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<v Speaker 1>your network visible to anyone who's nearby. Once you turn

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<v Speaker 1>off S s i D broadcasting, you can connect because

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<v Speaker 1>you know the S s i D that's one of

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<v Speaker 1>the things you set in your router settings, but other

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<v Speaker 1>people will not see your network. The other thing you

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<v Speaker 1>can do is turn on Mac address screening. You can

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<v Speaker 1>enter the MAC address of each device you want to

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<v Speaker 1>connect into your network. Anyone with an unknown Mac address

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<v Speaker 1>will be denied access, even if they guess the password

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<v Speaker 1>while you're in there. Making these changes. Make sure your

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<v Speaker 1>router does not create and enable a separate guest network.

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<v Speaker 1>Some routers do this as a courtesy or as an

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<v Speaker 1>extra feature. If your router does create a second guest network,

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<v Speaker 1>disable it or set a password on this second high

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<v Speaker 1>spot as well. By enabling all three of these features

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<v Speaker 1>and making sure you don't have a guest network, you

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<v Speaker 1>make it virtually impossible for anyone outside of your household

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<v Speaker 1>to connect to your network. And now you've made it

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<v Speaker 1>impossible for strangers to download child porn through your network

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<v Speaker 1>and for someone from the federal government to break down

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<v Speaker 1>your door early in the morning. For more illness and

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<v Speaker 1>thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>and don't forget to check out the brain stuff blog

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