Who helped you set up your home network?
I hope your wifi is not open. Did you take your wireless router right out of the box, power it on, hook up, and start surfing the internet? Is your network name Linksys or D-Link or fill in the blank with the out of the box factory default name? What encryption are you using? Do you know what WEP or WPA is or means?
Did you know if you run an open wifi the FBI could knock down your door and take you in for questioning for stealing movies or music off the internet? Never downloaded anything? Too bad. They found you by your wifi's IP address. But hey, wait a minute, you still did not download anything. Well your neighbors 16 year old did. And he did it with your free and open internet link. While after further investigation they will find you do not have and never had any of the items in question on your computers. Yeah thats right they may confiscate your computers to look for this pirated media. You can avoid this by taking a few more steps and taking a little time to protect your home wifi network.
Do you still have the book that came with your wifi router. Well a google search or trip to your routers website may get one for you if you no longer have it. You will find contained with in this book the steps to interfacing with your wifi router.
Then you must decide just how far you would like to go with your security. Not that its going to be way too hard for you to get in. It makes it a barrier for a casual wifi borrower to move on to the next router. You can hide your networks name from being broadcasted. You can require a password for connection. You can filter phones or computers by their MAC address for entry as well. How long and complicated you make your password for your connection helps.
Through the next couple of posts we will go through and get your home wireless more secure and less likely to be compromised.
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