Okay - I understand the pros and cons of secure vs. unsecure. I really do. I am rather sure nobody is tapping my bandwidth. My signal really sucks. I can't get my own system all the way through my own house, much less from a car sitting out in my street.

My neighbors, on the other hand, have very solid and powerful unsecured networks in their houses. There are currently six wireless networks in range, including my own. Two of them are security-enabled, and the other three are unsecured. Of the three unsecured, one of them has one bar, my own connection in my house has four bars, and the other two have three bars. If I stepped outside my door, my own signal would diminish to one or two bars. The neighbors would pick up to four if I were out there.

In other words, the only way to really snag my signal is to be IN my house. The neighbor's signals way overpower mine and are every bit as unsecure.

It's just not an issue I am worried about.

However, I am annoyed that I often get bumped from my own network by the unsecured neighbors.

So again I ask my question: If my network was secure and my laptop had the WEP (?) key and connect securely to my own in-house wireless router, would that prevent the unsecured signals in the neighborhood from knocking me off my secure connection? 'Cause I'm sick of getting knocked off of m own network by the more powerfl neighbors while I sit on my own couch.

I'd rather NOT mess with going secure because it will just create more work for us as others are in our house and have to have our network key to use our signal. But if it will help keep me from getting bumped, then I'll do it...'cause I'm realy sick of being bumped.

From what I can tell,a neighboring signal seems to knock me off but not fully connect me to that signal. It leaves me disconnected from my own, and then I have to go in and re-connect to my own wireless.

So... would establishing a secure network prevent that from happening to my laptop?