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Having the convenience of wireless internet is a beautiful thing! No matter what type of device you want to use to connect to the internet, as long as your signal is broadcasting you can get connected. But, there are a few pitfalls to having a wireless router broadcast your expensive internet service. The first problem, and the biggest one, is others trying to mooch off your signal.
Internet service can get pretty pricey these days, so to save a few bucks some people help themselves to a wireless signal that belongs to someone else. If you don’t take the proper precautions and set your system up carefully, you may just have someone sharing your bandwidth with you.
The easiest precaution you can take is to make sure your internet signal is password protected. It’s a simple deterrent that will successfully keep out many internet thieves. One thing to keep in mind though, is to make a complex password and change it often. If you use the same password for everything from your cross platform graphical ftp or email service or choose something common like a birthday, then your password could easily be hacked. The best thing to do is to make a nonsensical password made up of letters, numbers, and symbols. This way, it’s not so easy to guess your password.
There are a couple more things that you can do to keep your internet secure. One is to use a secure, reliable ftp server and another one is to not broadcast the signal publicly. Basically, your SSID (or the name or your wireless network) will not show up when someone searches for wireless signals in their area. To access it, you will have to provide the exact name of the SSID when trying to search for it.
