lazserus
Jul 2nd, 2011, 7:04 PM
Most people using wireless internet in the home don't set up their own networks, the internet provider does that during installation. It's rare these days that an internet provider doesn't include a broadband modem capable of wireless networking. Whether you use your provider's wireless connection or you introduce your own wireless router is irrelevant. By default, all wireless routers in the home are installed without security. Simple plug'n play.
Wireless security is important but it's not terribly serious when discussing in-home usage. The major reason security should be implemented is to prevent your internet connection from being hijacked. Without wireless security anyone from a neighbor to a vagabond in a van can login to your wireless network and use its internet for free.
Most wireless routers using 802.11 technology can broadcast up to 200 feet (61 meters), though attenuation occurs dramatically after 100. This means if you live in an apartment complex your neighbor can use your internet with very little signal attenuation, and if you live in the suburbs a feller parked across the street could also hijack your signal for internet usage. More or less, these people are paying nothing by simply using your wireless signal to access the internet.
To prevent others from getting free what you pay for, simply add security to your network. This can be done by logging into your router and checking a box and setting a password. Unless you're using internet to transmit classified information, the simplest security will work fine, normally WPA. All routers have a Wireless or Wireless Security option, and therein you change from None or Disabled to WPA, WEP, et al. I suggest selecting WPA because the password parameters are the same as Windows.
By password-protecting your wireless network you prevent anyone but whom you choose from using your internet connection. It can be a little annoying at times when your friend comes over and you have to keep typing in the password for her laptop to connect, but it's worth the extra effort. (Plus, your friend can check a box to store your network's login info so not to repeat the process the next time she visits.) Wireless internet hijacking is rare in suburbs but common in urban areas, where the only distance between you and a neighbor is a few inches of drywall.
But why should any of this matter?
Principle
You get up every morning and go to work. You work all day (or night) and spend your earnings on bills, food, vacations, clothes, hookers, whatever. You earn the money and you spend the money, and a significant percentage of your wage is spent on bills, which includes internet. So why should you go through all this mumbo jumbo and spend say $30/month for internet when you could simply live next to someone who does? Your neighbor is sitting on his couch, shoving Doritos into his face, and playing Halo online on your dime! You work to pay your bills, why should your neighbor get his internet for free because you didn't secure your network?
Principle!
Throttling
Some of us have little or no principles. Let's look at this practically then. In North America internet providers throttle bandwidth, which means how fast you can download that Lesbian Hookers from Uranus film can slow to a crawl if too much data is transferred within your block, especially under your specific address. Every provider in North America claims to offer transfer rates of this or that, but the reality is much different. All bandwidth is shared, and if your address is a heavy hitter, the ISP will throttle your bandwidth.
We never actually get the bandwidth promised by our service providers, but the bandwidth promised by them more or less shows us they can, in a perfect environment, provide us with such speeds. But I'm sure many of you have noticed at times your download speeds tend to randomly decrease, especially after you've spent the last few days downloading large files. This is throttling, a method providers use to constrict your transfer flow in order to increase the flow of neighbors who don't spend all their night's online and downloading.
If some neighbor or van hobo uses your internet connection to download the latest and greatest midget porn, or say the copy of a movie in the theaters some dumbass recorded with his phone and put online, or even a Steam update....Your ISP will notice this and throttle your account. And let's not forget that if some jackass hijacking your service is downloading at the same time you are, your download speed will suffer. (His will suffer as well, but he's not paying top dollar for bandwidth, he's stealing it from you!)
It only take a moment to login to your router and setup a password-protected network. Unfortunately I cannot explain how because the process differs per router. But my suggestion is if you don't have your wireless home network protected with a password, get right on it!
Wireless security is important but it's not terribly serious when discussing in-home usage. The major reason security should be implemented is to prevent your internet connection from being hijacked. Without wireless security anyone from a neighbor to a vagabond in a van can login to your wireless network and use its internet for free.
Most wireless routers using 802.11 technology can broadcast up to 200 feet (61 meters), though attenuation occurs dramatically after 100. This means if you live in an apartment complex your neighbor can use your internet with very little signal attenuation, and if you live in the suburbs a feller parked across the street could also hijack your signal for internet usage. More or less, these people are paying nothing by simply using your wireless signal to access the internet.
To prevent others from getting free what you pay for, simply add security to your network. This can be done by logging into your router and checking a box and setting a password. Unless you're using internet to transmit classified information, the simplest security will work fine, normally WPA. All routers have a Wireless or Wireless Security option, and therein you change from None or Disabled to WPA, WEP, et al. I suggest selecting WPA because the password parameters are the same as Windows.
By password-protecting your wireless network you prevent anyone but whom you choose from using your internet connection. It can be a little annoying at times when your friend comes over and you have to keep typing in the password for her laptop to connect, but it's worth the extra effort. (Plus, your friend can check a box to store your network's login info so not to repeat the process the next time she visits.) Wireless internet hijacking is rare in suburbs but common in urban areas, where the only distance between you and a neighbor is a few inches of drywall.
But why should any of this matter?
Principle
You get up every morning and go to work. You work all day (or night) and spend your earnings on bills, food, vacations, clothes, hookers, whatever. You earn the money and you spend the money, and a significant percentage of your wage is spent on bills, which includes internet. So why should you go through all this mumbo jumbo and spend say $30/month for internet when you could simply live next to someone who does? Your neighbor is sitting on his couch, shoving Doritos into his face, and playing Halo online on your dime! You work to pay your bills, why should your neighbor get his internet for free because you didn't secure your network?
Principle!
Throttling
Some of us have little or no principles. Let's look at this practically then. In North America internet providers throttle bandwidth, which means how fast you can download that Lesbian Hookers from Uranus film can slow to a crawl if too much data is transferred within your block, especially under your specific address. Every provider in North America claims to offer transfer rates of this or that, but the reality is much different. All bandwidth is shared, and if your address is a heavy hitter, the ISP will throttle your bandwidth.
We never actually get the bandwidth promised by our service providers, but the bandwidth promised by them more or less shows us they can, in a perfect environment, provide us with such speeds. But I'm sure many of you have noticed at times your download speeds tend to randomly decrease, especially after you've spent the last few days downloading large files. This is throttling, a method providers use to constrict your transfer flow in order to increase the flow of neighbors who don't spend all their night's online and downloading.
If some neighbor or van hobo uses your internet connection to download the latest and greatest midget porn, or say the copy of a movie in the theaters some dumbass recorded with his phone and put online, or even a Steam update....Your ISP will notice this and throttle your account. And let's not forget that if some jackass hijacking your service is downloading at the same time you are, your download speed will suffer. (His will suffer as well, but he's not paying top dollar for bandwidth, he's stealing it from you!)
It only take a moment to login to your router and setup a password-protected network. Unfortunately I cannot explain how because the process differs per router. But my suggestion is if you don't have your wireless home network protected with a password, get right on it!