WiFi Setup and security

Wireless networks are a great way to share files, printers, and your Internet connection to any computer in your home. With a wireless network adapter installed on your portable computer, you are no longer tied to your desk. You can communicate with friends, read the news, and surf the Web anywhere you can receive a wireless network signal.
The risks

Wireless networks don't stop at the walls of your home. In fact, wireless networks often extend more than 300 feet from your wireless router. If you live in an apartment, dorm, or condominium, you may have dozens of neighbors who can access your wireless network. If you live in a house, your neighbors and even people on the street may be able to connect to your network.

It's one thing to let a neighbor borrow your lawn mower, but you should think twice about allowing anyone to access your home network. There are several good reasons for this. People who can connect to your wireless network might be able to:
• Slow down your Internet performance.
• View files on your computers and spread dangerous software.
• Monitor the Web sites you visit, read your e-mail and instant messages as they travel across the network, and copy your usernames and passwords.
• Send spam or perform illegal activities with your Internet connection.

By setting up security features on your wireless network, you can make it very difficult for uninvited guests to connect.

How to protect your wireless network

Most wireless networks are completely unprotected when you first set them up. However, in just a few minutes, you can protect your wireless network by using the same method banks use to protect your password when you log on to their Web sites: encryption. Encryption scrambles data on your wireless network so that only computers that have the encryption key can read your communications.

You have several choices for wireless encryption:
• 64-bit WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection). The original wireless encryption standard, it is now outdated. The main problem with it is that it can be easily "cracked." Cracking a wireless network means defeating the encryption so that you can establish a connection without being invited.
• 128-bit WEP. An updated, more secure version of the original WEP. However, skilled attackers can still crack 128-bit WEP in a few hours or less, giving them access to your network.
• WPA-PSK (also known as WPA-Personal). A more secure alternative to WEP, but because it is newer, it is not as widely supported. Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 supports WPA, so this type of encryption is the best choice if you plan to connect only Windows XP computers to your wireless network. However, if you have wireless devices that don't support WPA, such as media extenders or wireless cameras, you'll have to use WEP on your network instead.

You might also see the security method called "WPA-Enterprise." As the name suggests, this method of network encryption is designed for business use. Setup for WPA-Enterprise is more complex than for other types of encryption, and it requires special network infrastructure.
• WPA2. The newest type of wireless encryption, WPA2 provides the highest level of encryption available. WPA2 encryption should be your first choice if your wireless router and all of your wireless computers and devices support it.

Even though one type of encryption may be better than another, any type will dramatically improve your network's security by making you a more difficult target.

Can wireless encryption be "cracked"?

The short answer is, "Yes." Any encryption can be cracked. An individual with knowledge of computers and networking, and who is willing to spend a few hours researching free "hacking" tools, can crack encryption in a few hours (or less). However, most users who want to connect without authorization lack the expertise to crack wireless encryption, even relatively weak 64-bit WEP. In a crowded neighborhood with numerous unprotected networks, anyone looking for a free connection will likely choose the unprotected network rather than spend the time to crack your wireless encryption. Therefore, even WEP encryption offers better protection than not having encryption enabled at all.

Hackers
Thanks to the media, the word "hacker" has gotten a bad reputation. The term computer hacker first showed up in the mid-1960s. A hacker was a programmer -- someone who hacked out computer code. Hackers were visionaries who could see new ways to use computers, creating programs that no one else could conceive. They were the pioneers of the computer industry, building everything from small applications to operating systems. In this sense, people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were all hackers -- they saw the potential of what computers could do and created ways to achieve that potential.
As computers evolved, computer engineers began to network individual machines together into a system. Soon, the term hacker had a new meaning -- a person using computers to explore a network to which he or she didn't belong. Usually hackers didn't have any malicious intent. They just wanted to know how computer networks worked and saw any barrier between them and that knowledge as a challenge.