Spring Cleaning Checklist: Keeping Your Home Wireless Network Secure

Spring has finally come around, so get out your spring cleaning list!

Here at FlashRouters, we are not concerned with typical spring cleaning tasks. Instead, we put our focus on cleaning up cluttered computers and securing home networks.

Take a look at our spring cleaning checklist to get a fresh start this spring with a spruced up and protected network.

1. Remove Computer Clutter

After constant use of your computer, you tend to accumulate random apps and files that you no longer use. FlashRouters recommends a deep clean each Spring.

First on our spring cleaning checklist is cleaning your computer by uninstalling applications and clearing caches and files. Your operating system’s built-in uninstaller can usually handle this task fairly well. Furthermore, performing uninstalls of unused apps clears your computer’s drive space and prevents apps from running in the background.

If you do not want to use the built-in uninstaller, a good application to perform uninstalls is CCleaner. CCleaner cleans and optimizes your computer as well as clears tracking files and browsing data. It offers easy one-click cleaning for beginners as well as advanced features for power users. This program can usually cover all your bases for users looking to clean their computers.

2. Defrag Your Computer

As stated by Windows,

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Removable storage devices such as USB flash drives can also become fragmented. Disk Defragmenter in Windows rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also analyze and defragment your disks and drives manually.

To defragment your hard disk on a Windows computer, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button
2. Search “Defragment and Optimize Drives”
3. Click Analyze to determine if your drives need to be defragmented
4. For drives that are over 10% fragmented, click the Optimize button
5. Windows will now defragment your drive

You can also allow windows to handle defragmenting on a scheduled basis to ensure your computer is running smoothly.

3. Change Your Router Username And Password

The first step to securing your home wireless network is changing your router login information. Right out of the box, every router comes with a generic username and password. The username is usually “admin” and the password is usually “password” or blank.

This generic, default login info makes it incredibly easy for individuals to access your router and potentially steal your private information. There are even websites indexing over 73,000 unsecured network cameras, allowing anyone to access and view. Changing your username and password to something only you or someone you trust knows is highly recommended.

4. Encrypt Your Home Wireless Network

This step is a given. Every router comes with options to encrypt your home wireless network, but there are many settings and techniques that can make it even more secure.

When encrypting your network, it is recommended that you use the security protocol WPA2 Personal, at least until WPA3 comes out. Using the WPA2 protocol along with the encryption type AES is one of the safest combinations thus far.

Next, picking the right password will make it nearly impossible to break into your wireless network. Your wireless network password should not be the same as your router password. Check out some of our tips to make a great password to secure your home wireless network.

5. Use A Virtual Private Network

A virtual private network, or VPN, is a way to completely encrypt your Internet traffic. This is done by creating a tunnel between your device and the Internet by means of a secure server. This server can be located in a completely different country, essentially making it look like you’re in a different country.

Take a look at some of our most popular VPN service providers, perfect for your spring cleaning checklist:

Unfortunately, most VPN services only allow a certain number of devices to utilize a VPN. Luckily, FlashRouters has a fix.

Spring Cleaning With A FlashRouter

A FlashRouter is a complete solution to securing your home wireless network. Our devices come with a different username and password for both the router and wireless network, allowing for the best security right out of the box.

Each FlashRouter comes pre-installed with open-source firmware, upgrading the capabilities and security of the device. One of the upgrades that open-source firmware provides is the ability for a FlashRouter to run a VPN. This protects your entire home wireless network and any device that connects to it.

NordLynx WiFi 6 Router – Privacy Hero

$179.99
$249.99

BUY NOW

• Perfect for Medium Homes
• Perfect for 20-30 Devices

AX3000 WiFi 6 VPN FlashRouter

$129.99
$149.99

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• Perfect for Medium Homes
• Perfect for 20-30 Devices

Asus RT-BE88U WiFi 7 Merlin FlashRouter

$469.99
$599.99

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• Upgraded with Custom Merlin Firmware.
• Next Gen WiFI 7 Update of Asus favorite model.

Optimize Spring Cleaning with the FR Privacy App

In addition to configuring your router for VPN, our FlashRouters come with the FR Privacy App! The FR Privacy App is an easy, free, and user-friendly way to access and configure your wireless network. Our app runs directly from any Internet browser on desktop or mobile devices.

This allows for easy tweaking and VPN configuration, including but not limited to:

• • • Easy device management.
    • Seamless VPN server switching.
    • Optimized UI on any browser or mobile phone.
    • Kill switch and VPN bypass by device.

Want better support for your entire network? The FlashRouters Privacy App is here to help.

Any questions or concerns about your spring cleaning checklist or anything else? Feel free to contact our support team!