We've had wireless in our home for several years, and I've never made the connection secure. Initially it was because I didn't know how, and then later realized that we have enough people who come and go from our house who use our connection when they're visiting (my mom w/her laptop, a nephew with his laptop, DS's friend with his Wii, etc.) that it was going to be a hassle always having to give them the key to get on our network. We aren't exactly keeping hot company secrets on our machines, so I just wasn't all that concerned about someone stealing our data.

In the past month, it appears that three neighbors have gotten wireless, and their connections aren't secure, either. I find my laptop being bumped offline frequently, and think it may have something to do with interference.

If I make our connection secure, will my laptop ignore those unsecure signals?

When you turn on your computer, you can make sure that the wireless signal you use is your own, and not your neighbors.

That said, they can choose to use yours if theirs is unavailable, which could cause a problem.

Keeping it secure is really your best bet. If you use it to shop, if you file your taxes online, do any online banking, keep records of any sort...it's all available to anyone driving by.

Yes, I do only connect to my own network and never theirs. At least, not on purpose. In one end of the house, the neighbor's signal is stronger than the one inside our own house (the point at which it's farthest away from our router), and I'm apt to find that my laptop has switched over to their signal.

I understand what you are saying about it being available to anyone driving by, but it really is more complicated than that. Someone would need to purposely sit in my driveway and hack the system. Our signal isn't all that strong, wheras the other unsecured connections in the neighborhood do appear to be quite strong, since they give me more bars than our own signal does in certain spots within the house. So, while I know that it's possible for someone to snag our information, I don't think it especially likely. And not that I want to share our tax return information... but there's not anything in there that I think anyone could use to steal from us. Someone would need to be specifically tapping us at that exact time (and we always seem to file extensions, so they'd be waiting until October - lol), but then they'd just know how much we made and how much we gave, kwim? Our checking account info is in Quicken, but I don't have any account numbers there to identify which account it is - or even which bank we use. I do shop online, but I check my credit card statement frequently (online) and would be aware within the day if anyone stole our credit card number and tried to use it. Any time you hand your credit card to a waitress you run that risk. Anytime you pay with a check you're giving out your routing number and checking account number. There just isn't a lot of information being sent in / out on our computer that couldn't be obtained by other means if someone were of a mind to .

This is a link one of my teachers posted which I keep around:

Child porn case shows that an open WiFi network is no defense

Basically a Texan man got caught downloading child pornography and tried to say it wasn't his because anyone could have downloaded it on his open wireless connection. They ruled that he was responsible for his connection even if he wasn't the one downloading.

Same thing goes for people downloading illegal mp3s and videos - pretty scary!

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Interesting. It does sound like there was a pretty fair amount of other evidence that led to the belief that that man was indeed the one who accessed the porn, and not like he was just an innocent Joe cooking an omelet, unaware that someone was lurking with a laptop outside the bathroom window. It sounds like he actually was committing the crime, but tried to create reasonable doubt by asserting that the downloading could've been done by someone else. While it could've, the fact that there were CD's with downloaded porn on them found within his things in the residence was supporting evidence, and they weren't convinced he was the innocent victim of bandwidth theft via wireless connection.

I guess it's a matter of weighing things. There are open wireless signals all over town. Residences. Coffee shops. McD's. I could sit in the parking lot of any of the fourteen hotels in my town and be online within seconds. Two churches have it. All of the public school facilities in our location have open wireless. The college down the road has it.

While I know it's possible for someone to use our signal for illegal reasons, I just think it's highly unlikely. There are much stronger signals that have a much higher level of public usage, which I believe would make any individual tapping the network harder to tap or even notice.

But... if I did have a secure connection, would that keep my laptop from "seeing" those unsecured signals, and keep me linked to my own router even if I went to the far end of the house, where the neighbor's signal is stouter than my own?

with an open connection you dont know how many people are parked around useing your bandwith, you really need to secure it.

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what exactly can happen -and how -if the connection is not secure???

no excuse for no secure connection. Too many things can happen. If a child accessed porn from another house using YOUR connection...you are liable. It's your duty to secure your connection, not just for your security but for the security of those around you

what can happen fridayrules? Well, you ever type in a password, banking info, credit card (on an online site) or anything otherwise "private", you are giving free access to anyone "peaking" on your network...NOT GOOD

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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?

I think that being on own network would reduce you "being bumped off". If you are tied into your own network only, you shouldn't get "bumped"...no reason. My DH is the network guru but I know that before I linked up directly to our secure network, I too, would get "bumped" and get frustrated...

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Thanks, smurf. I didn't know if creating a secure scenario made my laptop put blinders on and ignore all the other signals that seem to scream, "CONNECT TO ME! CONNECT TO ME! HERE I AM!!!!" or not.

It's funny that I can be in bed and I'll have more of the neighbor's bars than my own. It's annoying when we are in severe weather and holed up in the basement (tornado alley) and my laptop can't pick up the signal from upstairs. It would be nice to be able to access weather.com from down there... but our signal just isn't stout enough.

Seriously - if I were out to tap into someone's network, I'd pick anybody's BUT ours - lol. Right now I'm about 20 feet away from the router and am getting all of two bars. It's just going through one wall. And using the Wii in the basement.... forget about it!

One thing that always surprised me is that the lady two doors down - the computer programming lady who had a website-building business that she ran from home - had a completely unsecured network. Hers was the network that would bump me if I had my laptop in our bedroom. She moved and all was well, but the new people who moved in seem to have an unsecured network that is more powerful than hers was, because it seems to reach clear into the kitchen, halfway across the house from the bedroom.

I'm thinkin' I'm not causing anyone any interference.

It should be possible to set your computer to only use your connection. My guess is that right now, it's set to choose a better signal if available.

I would set my connection to be a secure connection. You may need to upgrade your firmware on your router!.. The most important thing is to have a secure connection. If the router has a MAC blocking feature, then enable it to block other
wireless machines from using your network . Actually everyone should do that. If you do not know how to do that, then call the maker of your router and they will walk you through . They will also help you to receive a better signal in your home.

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Irish, I have a feeling our poor connection has as much to do with the age of the router than anything. It's probably about... oh... 5 1/2 years old or so, and it wasn't the top of the line at the time I bought it. It was a "free after rebate" thing from Best Buy.

I've always assumed that at some point we'd upgrade it and our new router would be sending out a signal powerful enough to reach the neighborhood, and that at that point, security would seem like a bigger deal. That, and the fact that if others tried to tap our connection it would seriously impact the speed we achieved. Right now my connection is plenty speedy so long as I'm in range. The range is just severely limited.

It appears as if you've come to your own conclusion as to what you want to do. Doesn't sound like you have a problem at all. Good news!

Not entirely, chaos. I mean... I still haven't tried to create a secure connection to see if that will impact the bump-off problem.

I just hate the fact that now when college kids are here to study, or my mom is here with her laptop, or DS's friend brings over his Wii, etc., I'm going to have to give them that long string of numbers/letters in order for them to get an internet signal.

well now I'm the idiot because I'm reading your post and you mention your wii. We have one and I had no idea it connected to the internet. My kids have never asked either....

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NO WAY, Smurf!

You didn't know that? :-)

Your Mii's can visit other people's Mii's. You can email people through the web. It actually uses the Opera browser and you can go online. There are some websites you can go to that actually have Wii games you can play right there on your Wii. They're pretty low-tech, but there nonetheless.

Your Wii will glow blue if it has gotten an update to its firmware via the web... if you have a message from someone... etc.

There are some games that you can play against a friend while they are at their house on their Wii if you want to hook up with them.

It's actually quite cool!

Oh - and there are weather forecasts and stuff available, as well!

ETA: I just googled very quickly and came up with this site that has lots of Wii games to play using Opera: Wii Flash Games - WiiPlayable

You can also spend Wii points when it's online, and buy old Nintendo games, like all the original Mario games and such.

Smurf, watch this YouTube video...
YouTube - Wii light guide