One of the easiest ways to add security to your network is to limit the total number of connections that are permitted on the network at once. Other posts here review security settings such as changing the default SSID (router name), or and disabling the SSID radio broadcast — similarly, limiting the total number of connections is easy to do.
1. The first thing to do is to figure out what is your total number of connections. Count all of your wired and wireless devices. Don’t forget to include any wireless or wired devices such as printers and systems such as TiVOs and XBOXs. Let’s say that the total number for your house is 5. I like to add one or two to this number (so if a friend or two comes over you don’t have to play with your router settings). So the total we will have in this example is 7. 5 for the total number of devices in your house that need network access (remember wired and wireless) plus 2 for a friend or two coming over and using your wireless network. (If you never have friends over that use the wireless connection feel free to set the number equal to the number of devices you currently have — 5 in this example.)
2. The login to your router. On the main screen you will see an option “”Maximum Number of DHCP Users” (marked in yellow below). Go ahead and change this number (usually the default is 50, but remember the original setting just in case you have to go back) to the number from above and save the settings.
If you find that a device is no longer working, go back and make sure you counted correctly, or go back and change the setting back to the original setting.
Remember that when you add the total number of connections that you need to include wired and wireless devices, and that if you add a new wireless (or wired) device, that you will have to go back into the router settings and add to the number that’s there. So if in our example I added a new wireless laptop, I’d increase the number from 5 to 6.