I just finished reading a news story regarding all of the WiFi sites located here in my town.
It told of all the places around me that offer wireless connections to their customers and how dangerous it was and how easy it is for people to access other peoples private information.
As most news stories go, they only told half of the story............
I know there are ways you can protect yourself from these people who try to access your information.
Can anybody fully explain what can be done along these lines please?
I myself have a laptop that I use out in my living room with a wireless connection. But I have turned on 128 bit encryption and also have AV and spyware software.
My connection is through a DSL modem that does have a firewall built in and I also have the XP Firewall turned on. Is this enough to protect my systems?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Sam

Hi Samsung,

Secure your data is an excellent idea, and you may find a lot of tutorials on the net, but there is another approach too, which is to secure and prevent acces to your broadband through your Wi-fi system, because someone may have access and use it for illegal purposes...

Take a look at http://www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/secure.asp?TID=2 for an overview, and at http://www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/secure_th...setup.asp?TID=2 on how to secure it.

Chris

That can get "iffy". W/less networks and internet access are becoming increasingly popular, so networks "bumping into each other" are going to become more common.

Encryption is the best thing that you did, and is extremely difficult/impossible to break. If your router offers different channels, you can change the channel from its default to a different one. For the most part that will take care of your security. Also, change your SSID from "default" to a name of your choosing.

My daughter is at college, and she was getting constant crosstalk and links from other w/less routers until I did the above. Now she can see the other w/less routers, but there is no cross-linkage or crosstalk and no more being bumped off the internet connection.

As a side thought, PC CILLIN Internet Security AV proggie has a super firewall, and also has a wireless "invasion alert" when a computer that it does not recognize attempts to log on to your network. It notifys you, and if you do not recognize the computer you can exclude it from your network. Nice.