Hey Neighbor, Stop Piggybacking on My Wireless – New York Times (registration sometimes required)
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: If you have a wireless access point in your home/apartment/office, you need to secure it.
It doesn’t matter if you use WEP, WPA, or MAC restrictions, if you don’t, you’ll end up with people using – and abusing – the chance to get online. I have, on occasion, looked around while travelling to see what’s out there, but I wouldn’t really ever use an open network unless I really had some sort of emergency – and even then, I’d be very careful about it.
Think about it: if you leave your access point open, then that means that anyone could have access to your network. They could potentially access files on your computer, use a network printer or other shared resources, or simply perform some illegal activity while logged in – and then you don’t know what they’ve done, and by the time you figure it out, either all the paper in your printer (or ink/toner) is used up, or they’ve tried to hack into the Pentagon and the FBI is knocking on your door. Good luck explaining that one.
On the other side, if you’re using a wireless network that you didn’t setup and don’t know anything about, it’s possible that while you’re checking your email, they’re probing your computer to see if they can access the files on your hard drive, or they’re taking advantage of flaws in your operating system to install viruses/adware on the computer, or they’re just recording all the data, hoping to get the user name and password for your email or some website you use – then they’ll be able to impersonate you, even for a little bit, and potentially make your life a lot less fun.
The first thing i do after setting up a wireless access point is to secure it somehow. Using WEP won’t stop a determined hacker, but then again, a determined hacker wouldn’t really have time to sit in your driveway and hack your access point, would they? It’s the sort of behaviour you’d notice. WPA is more secure, but not all the older devices support it. The MAC restrictions are a nice way to go as far as ease of use – only machines that you enter are allowed to pass traffic – but it’s not really secure. Your best bet is to use an ecryption system and the MAC restrictions, so that even if they manage to get the password, they have to work more to get online.
if you don’t know how to do it yourself, you could certainly contact a local computer vendor for help. Heck, if you live in Connecticut (CT), I’d be willing to come to your house and set it all up for a reasonable fee. If you don’t live in CT, I’d be happy to come visit for a less reasonable fee ;).
Either way, take the time to setup some kind of restriction on your wireless – you’ll appreciate it even more when your neighbor complains about all the other neighbors using their connection and how slow everything now is….
