Strong Passwords

Introduction

In the past few years, wireless networks have gone from a hobbyist's toy to something offered in coffee shops, restaurants and airports. Following this move by large companies, many homes and small businesses now have some sort of wireless device.

Wireless offers many advantages, the chief among them being portability. If you have a laptop or PDA, you can be in virtually any room in your house, on the porch, or even out by the pool and still get your email, check the scores or see what Beyonce wore to the latest awards show. And if you have non-portable devices, such as desktop computers, an internet radio or a Tivo, you can still network them together to share files or internet access without having to run wires through the walls and under carpets.

As with most things, there are some downsides. These include interference and dropouts caused by 2.4 GHz cordless phones and microwave ovens, range limits and incompatibility with some equipment (especially between different vendors). However, by far the biggest problem with wireless connections is security.

As anyone who pays attention to the news knows, computer security is a major issue, especially for Windows users - and as Windows is installed on approximately 90% of computers, that's a big problem. Unfortunately, a misconfigured wireless network makes this problem even worse. The good news? It's fairly easy to lock down wireless networks to keep all but the most determined hackers out.

But why should anyone care if people access their wireless network?

First, you're paying for the service, not your neighbor.

Second, anything someone does while connected to your wireless network will be traced back to you and will be your responsibility. Look at how the RIAA is suing people for sharing music over the internet. They go by IP address (see below). That IP address goes to you, not your neighbor.

Last, if they have access to your wireless network, they could get access to all your computers.