As the trend of the online businesses, entrepreneurship and the home based jobs have increased the home computer networks are also increased worldwide. Users can share files and resources, access internet, access the remote computers, play movies and songs. A home computer network can be setup wired or wirelessly by using the combinations of various devices such as router, hub, switch, LAN card, wireless router, broadband router, access points, PCMCIA card and other devices. The home network user has to diagnose, monitor and troubleshoot the security threats, vulnerabilities and other issues and the users have to resolve these issues by themselves.
This article will provide you the common vulnerabilities in a home network and the techniques for troubleshooting them. Being the owner of your home network, you need to administer it by yourself. If a one computer is under security attacks then the other computes can also be affected.
Virus Attack
According to a recent research, every online compute without a proper security mechanism can be infected with viruses, spyware, adware and malicious codes in only twenty minutes. One of the most common threats to a home computer network is viruses attack. A virus infected computer can’t perform smoothly. Once a single computer is infected, all the networked computers can easily be attacked by viruses. The best solution to avoid this problem is to install an up-to-dated antivirus program on all the computers and scan your computers regularly with the antivirus programs. The most popular antivirus programs are Norton Antivirus, Trend Micro, McAfee and Panda Antivirus. If you require a free antivirus solution the AVG antivirus is best.
Spyware & Adware
Spyware and adware are amongst the common internet threats and most of the antivirus programs alone are not able to deal with them. To deal with them anti spyware and anti adware software are required. Spyware once entered into a computer they can monitor your keystrokes, steal your confidential data and transmit to their destined locations on web, corrupt your windows registry and degrade the performance of your computer. Before you get an antivirus solution, make sure that it also provides the antivirus and firewall features. Always go for 3 in 1 antivirus solution.
Phishing Attacks
Phishing is a type of the internet scam that is designed to steal your confidential information. Never trust any email from an unknown source and open email attachments. Phishing is an attempt to acquire your sensitive information including user name, password, credit card information and other important financial information. Phishing is normally carried out with the emails and instant messages through web messengers. Another technique to avoid phishing attack is not to open any links from chat. The messages are usually entitled as “see my holidays' pictures, see video clips and get software for free” and many others. When someone mistakenly clicks these links then messengers gets logged out automatically.
Hackers’ Attack
Internet is not a safe place for sharing confidential information and doing financial transactions if no proper security mechanisms have be implemented. Among the other threats, hackers’ attacks are very common. Every online user is provided an IP address, which is a unique identifier of every user on the internet. An internet hacker try to get your IP address to enter your computer and once a hacker enters your computer, he/she can steal your confidential data, transfer viruses to your computer and can perform other unwanted and dangerous actions. The solution to avoid the hackers’ attacks is to implement a firewall on your gateway and all the computers in your home network. A firewall can be a software or hardware. It simply filters out the in and out traffic. When strict rules and policies are defined in the firewall then no hacking attacks can be possible.
Unauthorized Access
Running a wireless network without implementing security techniques can be very risky. There can be attempts of the unauthorized access from the nearby networks. The best solutions for implement security mechanisms in your wireless home network is to change the default administrator’s password and user name of your router, enable MAC address filtering, disable SSID broadcast, assign static IP addresses to the devices and computers, enable firewall and implement WEP, WPA and other security techniques.
Connectivity & Configurations Issue
This is most common that connectivity and configurations issues arise in your home computer network. You need a good tools and techniques to diagnose, isolate and troubleshoot the problem. By default Windows based operating systems have the troubleshooting tools in the TCP/IP stack. With these tools, you can resolve the connectivity and other issues. If you have a complex network, then third party troubleshooting software can be very helpful for your network. Some of the best network troubleshooting tools includes IP Sentry, Network Magic, GFI LanGuard, Server Nanny, Ethereal and Air Magnet Enterprise etc. You can use any of these tools based on your unique requirements and your network infrastructure.