[Wooly]

This goes for everyone no matter what you use to browse the Internet.

[mowowie]

I get better internet reception in my backyard from somebodies unsecured connection than i do my own.

Played much music and FR off of it last summer.

[Running On Empty]

Marking

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[1066AD]

Google has admitted capturing unsecured wi-fi info as part of its Street View project.

They say they have no plans to use that data but if so, why capture it in the first place ?

[roadcat]

There's truth in this article. I've seen unprotected networks in my neighborhood. Getting on them out of curiousity, I see people leave sharing on, and it's easy to browse their hard drives. I'm not malicious and quickly depart.

Put encryption on your network with a secure password. And remove the advertising of your wi-fi name. If people want on, they would need the name as well as the password. If your wi-fi name doesn't show then people won't try to get in.

[Little Pig]

As an information security professional, I have to second this. I have heard, from numerous sources, the following description of wireless internet: wireless internet is the equivalent of carpeting a one-mile-radius area around your house with live ethernet jacks connected directly to your network. As noted above, with the right antenna, any 10-year-old kid can own your network within 2 minutes if you’re using WEP encryption, or less time if you don’t encrypt your network (and you’d better believe that there are a lot of bored 10-year-olds out there who will do exactly that).

To be secure, use WPA or WPA2 encryption, preferably with AES rather than TKIP. Use a non-dictionary password. The best ones have numbers and symbols included. This is to prevent the use of “rainbow tables”, which are basically huge files of passwords used to brute-force attack the newer encryptions. An example would be to use the first letters of all the words in a long phrase, with numbers mixed in in place of some words, thus: I Watched Lord Of The Rings 2 Times Last Night!, which produces IWLORT2TLN!

Make sure you change that phrase a couple of times a year at least.

[JerseyHighlander]

A $50 wireless antenna?
Those are some wealthy hackers.

All you need is a $5 chinese wok, a $10 wifi card, a few flatwashers and a drinking straw.

http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/

[tpmintx]

Network passwords can be written down, and need not be remembered. You don’t need to worry about someone seeing it.

It is for that reason that I generate network passwords with my eyes closed. Pounding on the computer keyboard tends to generate nice long somewhat random blends of letters, numbers and symbols.

I also have the same SSID and password in use at my son’s apt at school. He also has one of those super long-range antennas that allows him to access the on-campus network from a couple blocks away. The on-campus network has access to online subscription-only research databases and he can get to them from home. The long-range link runs slower, but it does work.

Lock up your WIFI. Lest your liberal neighbors find out you’re a Freeper.

[atomic_dog]

Not every network that shows up as unsecured is.

Knock yourself out trying to get in.

[Right Wing Assault]

Map

http://wigle.net/gps/gps/Map/onlinemap2/

[Eagle9]

02/07/2007 Dated, but still an easy to follow step-by-step instructional article. with images of most important instructions to help. MAC Address filtering and hiding SSID not important, IMHO. Easier if you print it out. Skip to Part lll or lV if you already have a basic understanding of networking.

______________________________________

"Here's a chapter right out of 'Home Network Security Simplified' that you'll end up showing to every member of your family. It's an easy-to-follow explanation of how to make sure that your home network is secure--why it's important, and amazingly, how few of us actually do it."
By Jim Doherty, Neil Anderson

Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part I
Page 1 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=QN5IOL1WI2HAMQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=197003923
Page 2 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YBGRLZ3HARN0XQE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN?articleId=197003923&pgno=2

Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part II
Page 1 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=10YJRWHFMDXQCQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=197004714
Page 2 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=197004714&pgno=2
Page 3 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=197004714&pgno=3

Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part III
Page 1 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DXLNYEIGK35N2QSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=197005104
Page 2 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=197005104&pgno=2

Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part IV
Page 1 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=O3BWSRNIIUYKQQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=197005948
Page 2 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=197005948&pgno=2

Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part V
Page 1 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3QAKD0LUJTXPIQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=197007563
Page 2 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=197007563&pgno=2

Securing a wireless network--The basics--Part VI
Page 1 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197008575
Page 2 http://networksystemsdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=197008575&pgno=2

____________________________________________________

I use 63 printable ASCII characters to encrypt my home modem/router and network with WPA2 AES . I also cut out a strong password from these ASCII characters to access my modem/router. Here is where you can get a random generated string for passwords or WPA and WPA2 encryption.

https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

[ShadowAce]

[ErnBatavia]

I may be old fashioned and paranoid, but I sure as hell am smart enough to NOT do such silliness as online banking, etc. We have nothing of any personal consequence on any of our computers.

A roll of postage stamps and thirty minutes doing bookkeeping and bill paying with the checkbook every Saturday afternoon work just fine for us.

[Professional Engineer]

Ping

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Go to work today after voting.

Presuming you work in an office, your computer is likely connected to a network.

Now: look at the back of your computer. Find the network connection. You will not find a wireless connection. You will see a cable.

There’s a reason for that.

[ctdonath2]

“With a $50 wireless antenna and the right software a criminal hacker located outside your building as far as a mile away can...”

With a rock any idiot can bypass your door lock.

[tutstar]

bttt

[Tunehead54]

4l8r ;-)

[antiRepublicrat]

I cruised a part of my neighborhood with my phone running WiFiFoFum on logging mode. Later I showed the results to a group of neighbors. Boy, were they shocked, 60 access points, one third of them running open, one third with only easily-brakable WEP.

And it wasn’t any sort of special hacking tool — just a phone with free software loaded. If I’d bothered to use a notebook with hacking tools I could have owned 2/3 of the networks in the neighborhood, and probably half the computers.

[Tolsti2]

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/WPA_key/generator.php

I like to use that for my key. The max one.

Also, your SSID is factored in with that key to generate the real ‘hash’ that’s used, so don’t use a standarized SSDI. Anything 5 char long and non standard is ok, but I like 5 random chars.

Make sure you’re wired when you use that site and for safe measure I go in and randomly change a few characters. Nothing can be more secure now than that.