The ability to share an Internet connection is great and the ability to do this wirelessly is even better. Wireless networks are easy to install—you don't have to run cables, and you can roam around a location within the WLAN (wireless local area network), or physical range of wireless connectivity ( here's a way to get started ). These features are what makes wireless networks so popular with both end users, and hackers.

The one problem with wireless networks is the vulnerability of your network. A typical hardwired network has physical security due to limited access to the actual network and one opening to the internet (Gateway) has a firewall or two in place (or it had better). This can stop most unauthorized access to your network. The difficulty in setting up wired networks has discouraged a lot of people from installing networks in the first place.

Then a long came the wireless which, as I stated earlier in the article, made the home networking game more appealing and not as intimidating. Having a wireless network means that the physical security that is inevitable in a wired network is simply not there. Anyone in the range of your wireless network can see your network, and if not secured properly, can gain access. If your wireless access point isn't the router on your network then outsiders can slip in behind your firewall. This used to happen at my college—there was an apartment complex behind a portion of the school, and the other techs would piggyback on some guy's network. He had an unsecured wireless network—no one did anything bad to him (at least to my knowledge)—they just used him for Internet access but he never knew.

There are some practices you can perform to insure that no one is using your connection or trying to get on your personal network. First and foremost you need to get WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection) in place, which is an encryption that stops unauthorized users from accessing your network. There are at least two encryption types in 802.11b (128bit, and 64bit) and should probably be changed every other week or so. WEP encryption used to be completely the user's responsibility, but now I'm seeing hardware out of the box with at least one encryption key configured, forcing the user to configure his PCs in order to connect.

Using WEP is essential to wireless security, but don't rely on it alone, there are other security measures you can put in place as well. With some wireless units you can set a MAC address filters, witch can really beef up your security. A MAC address is an identification number the manufacturer stamps on a network device, and is (or should be) completely unique. If this security is in place then even if someone knows the WEP Key they still cannot get into the network because your wireless access device will deny it.

There buy cheap generic propecia are two other things you might want to do to tighten up your network: The first thing you should do is go through and change all of the default security settings, and passwords. The reason I said this is most Routers and access points usually have a lot of these configuration fields (i.e. username and password or the SSID ) filled out with generic values for ease of setup. The bad thing about this is that people can use these settings against you to gain access into your network. Secondly, with a lot of routers your SSID is set to broadcast by default, this means that it's broadcasting your network's name to the physical reaches of your network. Not good, even if your neighbors don't have the security rights to access your network they will constantly see it every time they boot up one of their wireless PC's.

Through the use of these practices you will not only protect your network, but render it practically invisible, and that's what you want. Just a side note before I go, if one day you boot up your wireless PC and you see a new connection that isn't secure, please take it easy on 'em, it's probably your neighbor. You have to remember not everyone is as informed or prepared as the Worldstart Readers and if your feeling nice go over and warn them to tighten up there network before someone not nice finds it open.

Stay safe out there,