How do i protect my wireless internet from others.?

Id like to know how to protect my wireless internet, so that other people close by cannot feed into it. I have cable internet, but I bought a wireless router. How do i protect my wireless internet from others.?
Use a combination of security measures.



1) MAC address filtering. It's easy to get around, but it's one more step someone will have to go through

2) Use a password, and a good one

3) turn off SSID broadcasting

4) limit the IP address range to just enough addresses so that all the computers in your house can connect, but no more.

5) keep an eye on the logs, and if possible, have the router log mac addresses and times that people connect



Of course, how many of these you use depends on how concerned you are. At the bare minimum, use a password. A little better is using the password and MAC filtering. turning off SSID broadcasting can be a bit inconvenient, so use at your discretion.How do i protect my wireless internet from others.?
It would help if you told us what type of router your using but here are some tips:



1. Change default administrative password on wireless router to a secured password at least 15-17 characters regularly



2. Enable WPA2 encryption on your router (not WEP) Change your keys periodically.



3. Change the default SSID on your router/access point to a hard to guess name. Setup your computer device to connect to this SSID by default.



4. Setup router/access point not to broadcast the SSID.



5. Block anonymous Internet requests or pings.



6. At night time when you aren't using your wireless connection or if your not going to be home the whole day turn off your router don't leave it on kill the signal.
It's the difference between secured and unsecured. You want secured, which means anyone trying to access your wireless need a key, or password to log on. You have to configure the router.



Try these links as for a beginner it is too much to explain here.