How to lock down your home wifi router for gaming

The first step toward home wifi router for gaming security, Horowitz said, is to make sure the wifi router for gaming and cable modem are not a single device. Many ISPs lease such dual-purpose devices to customers, but those customers will have little control over their own home networks. (If you need to get your own modem, check out our recommendations for the best cable modems.)

"If you were given a single box, which most people I think call a gateway," Horowitz said, "you should be able to contact the ISP and have them dumb down the box so that it acts as just a modem. Then you can add your own wifi router for gaming to it."

Next, Horowitz recommended that customers buy a low-end commercial-grade Wi-Fi/Ethernet wifi router for gaming, such as the Pepwave Surf SOHO, which retails for about $200 (though beware price gougers), rather than a consumer-friendly wifi router for gaming that can cost as little as $40. 

Commercial-grade wifi router for gaming are unlikely to have UPnP or WPS enabled. The Pepwave, Horowitz noted, offers additional features, such as firmware rollbacks in case a firmware update goes wrong. (Many top-end consumer wifi router for gaming, especially the best gaming routers, offer this as well.)

Regardless of whether a wifi router for gaming is commercial- or consumer-grade, there are several things, varying from easy to difficult, that home-network administrators can do to make sure their wifi router for gaming are more secure.