Questions about wireless broadband

[RockChick84]

I'm planning on getting wireless broadband put into my house but I am worried about the neighbours connecting to the Internet via my wireless connection, just incase my personal information or what I am doing online will be seen by them and they could then hack my computer or use my details for criminal misdeeds. Do any of you have any advice/answers to this for me?

[j4bberw0ck]

Should be no problem. WiFi networks can be set up secured or unsecured ("open" if you will). If you secure it, you're OK unless you happen to have the Secret Services in the house next door trying to get into your computer. :lol:

Instructions for securing it will come with your router (if that's the way you go). Do you have more than one pc? Or do you just want to lose the wire from the pc to the phone socket? Without getting into infrastructure wifi networks or ad-hoc networks, I think that answers your immediate question.

Would be useful if you'd say what you want to connect to the network. Which ISP will you use?

[MadPict]

Or you can just use your household wiring to act as your network - something like this -
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware/reviews/2005/q4/solwiseplug.asp

[Bobinovich]

I'm planning on getting wireless broadband put into my house but I am worried about the neighbours connecting to the Internet via my wireless connection, just incase my personal information or what I am doing online will be seen by them and they could then hack my computer or use my details for criminal misdeeds. Do any of you have any advice/answers to this for me?

A word of warning just in case you're using AOL - configuring wireless ADSL routers to work with AOL can be a nightmare. Other than that it can be very liberating not being tied to a desk - many printers can be attached directly to the router so you can send your files to them wirelessly too!

[Ricco]

I have had wireless for about a year now. Excellent. You can set it up so that only your PCs and lappies are allowed to log in. You should also set it up for the most secure level of encryption to prevent hackers.

Your wireless producer and your ISP will both help you through the configuration of your router. Just make sure your main PC has the security password BEFORE you set it on the router - not like some dork (moi) did and had to hardwire to get in again. lol

[pultneytooner]

I'm planning on getting wireless broadband put into my house but I am worried about the neighbours connecting to the Internet via my wireless connection, just incase my personal information or what I am doing online will be seen by them and they could then hack my computer or use my details for criminal misdeeds. Do any of you have any advice/answers to this for me?
You should have posted on the technical section, some clever folks frequent those places.:D

[blueivy]

Hi RockChick84,

Couple of words of warning if you are setting up a wireless network and it all depends on which ISP you are going for (and therefore what kit you'll get).

If you are setting it up yourself then as Bobinovich said, setting up non-AOL hardware with AOL can be a bit of a nightmare and is not for the faint hearted (or the non-technical). If it's for another 'normal' ISP (my apologies to all AOL users but AOL's kit / software has always been geared to lock you into them) then there are three things you want to do to secure your network:

Turn off the SSID broadcasting. SSID broadcasting basically broadcatss the name of your wireless access point (WAP) out to the world. The first thing you would do stop somebody trying to get in is stop them knowing the name that they're trying to access. This means you will need to know what the WAP is called and set it up on your network cards (easy to do).
DO NOT USE WEP Encryption use WPA. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is very insecure and is pointless these days unless you have nothing else. With the right software and card you can hack a wireless network in under a minute depending on traffic (I've tested it). The software and cards are both readily available so it's not just for the the 'techies' in the know. WEP also puts an overhead onto the hardware that uses it which can slow throughput. It's just a bad idea all round (unless you have nothing else).
WPA is the new standard in Encryption (and WPA2 is you can get it), is a lot more secure, has no overhead (or is small enough that you needn't worry) and is supported by most modern hardware. Use this if you have it. If you use a pre-shared key, make sure you keep it safe. That's the key to your network, if somebody has that you may as well not have any security at all.
Use MAC Address filtering. Each network card has a MAC address and by setting up your WAP to only allow the network cards you know about to access it will help increase your security.Doing all of these should help secure your network and make it almost impossible to access.

I hope this is useful to a lot of people. It's something that I plan to write more about in the future for my website. In the meantime though if you need any more help or advice, let me know.

[Lolabelle]

Hi Rockchick 84, good to see you around.
I am afraid that I am a technical retard, so when I got broadband wireless, I found a friend who was a technical wizz and got him to do it. But my sister set her own up, where as I wanted to network my laptop and desktop, I think that is more complicated. Depend what you want to do. But if in doubt, get a professional.:D