WiFi - Do you want your neighbors to see what your doing?!

Wireless routers are very common and allow you to connect your laptop, mobile phones and various other devices to your internet connection. Wireless networking (WiFi) works using a radio signal which means that anyone can 'tune in' and listen to the data, such as your email, traveling across the airwaves.
Most home WiFi routers have a range of up to about 120 feet, so the signal could easily reach as far as your neighbours and the street outside your house. This means that unless you have encryption and a password on your wireless internet connection ANYONE could potentially be watching your every move on-line without you ever knowing about it.


Websites often transmit passwords or cookies unencrypted, which could give an attacker an easy way to log in to sites such as Facebook as you. In addition to snooping on you, someone could use your internet connection to download illegal or copyrighted material. If the cops come knocking on your door, its going to be you they blame. This link provides some examples :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8381097.stm
Be aware that public WiFi hotspots are also susceptible to these kind of problems. Okay, now that I've scared you a bit you'll want to know what you can do to stop this from happening !

Essential
1.) Router Password & Encryption - Never leave your internet connection open for anyone to use. If your router has an option to use WPA encryption with a password then that is what you should use. Some routers are now being delivered already setup with a random password such as QYANE2OR using WPA encryption. If your router does not allow WPA encryption then go for WEP encryption, but be aware that WEP encryption can be easily cracked in less than 15 minutes in some cases.

2.)If you are choosing a password yourself then make sure it is as long as is allowed and is not easily guessable. You should also avoid common words and names such as movie titles or film stars names.

3.) If you are using a public hotspot then exercise caution with what you access on the internet. This is a whole other area that I'll cover in detail at a later date.

Advanced
1.) Hide the routers Name - The SSID is the name of your Router, for example "Nicks internet" that shows up when you look for wifi networks to connect to. If you hide it then others can only connect to it if they already know the name and connect manually. It won't show up when anyone looks for a wifi network.

2.) Restrict access to your router & internet connection - You can restrict access to your router and allow only your laptop, phone etc to connect to it. Every device that can connect to a network has its own unique code assigned to it known as a "MAC Address". You can set your router to only allow those MAC addresses to use your internet connection.

Your router user guide or manual should give you details of how to configure additional options.

If you'd like to know more about how to configure your wifi router with these extra security options, or the hazards of public hotspots, then feel free to leave a comment asking for more info and I'll see what I can do !