More and more people are preferring WiFi networks over the traditional Ethernet cable based networks. The WiFi network is a tad costlier to install but it requires very little maintenance later and absolutely no cabling is needed. Because you do not need a cable connection, just about anyone can access your WiFi network making them easier to hack as well. SoftPerfect WiFi Guard is a small tool that helps you keep you WiFi network secure and protected.
SoftPerfect WiFi Guard is an essential tool for everyone running a small WiFi network and trying to make it secure. Although modern WiFi networks are protected, but there are still a number of weaknesses that can compromise your WiFi password. For example, using a weak password or weaker encryption, known vulnerabilities in encryption cipher and brute force attacks. Consequently a potential hacker can find your password, login to your WiFi network and misuse it. WiFi Guard can prevent this by informing you of any new devices connected to your network so that you can take appropriate action quickly.
WiFi Guard is available as an installer for Windows or as a portable application. You can use either of these as per you preference. When you run WiFi Guard for the first time, it displays settings screen where you can select a network adaptor and the time interval for scanning the network for new devices. You can also choose options for displaying WiFi Guard in the notification area and automatically starting it with Windows.
After you have set the options to scan your WiFi network adaptor, click OK to close this window. In the WiFi Guard window, you can click on the Scan Now button to scan for the new devices connected to your network. It would take more than a minute to finish the scanning process. Now you can select each new IP address and click on the Properties button in the toolbar to set properties for it. In the properties dialog, you can give a name like KitchenComputer to an IP address and set whether you recognize a device or computer.
If you find an unknown device that might be using your WiFi network, the first thing that you should do is set a new stronger password for your WiFi network access. You can use the free PasswordG utility to generate very strong passwords. After this you can also block the MAC address of the intruding device in your WiFi router’s settings. It is better to use a stronger password security like WPA or WPA2 in your WiFi router.
WiFi Guard is a very simple tool that informs you of new unknown devices connected to your WiFi network. It is completely free and portable application that works in both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. It is also available for Linux and Mac.
You can download SoftPerfect WiFi Guard from http://www.softperfect.com/products/wifiguard/.