KEY POINTS:
Wireless networks - what's not to like? Personally I'm a huge fan of anything that frees me from the stuffy confines of a dark computer room and lets me vege in the lounge or lax out on the lawn with my laptop. Unfortunately, as I recently discovered, going wireless can also have some potentially huge downsides.
Traditional wired networks only go where you've installed network cable and won't roam beyond your property; wireless networks on the other hand, use radio waves which know no such boundaries.
The upshot is that, out of box, most wireless routers are configured by default to blindly send and receive data and most serious of all, to allow any unscrupulous individual to access to your network. This can, obviously, wreak havoc and you valuable broadband data bandwidth.
This was precisely what happened to me. Whilst in my lounge, I noticed that the lights on my wireless router was going bonkers, indicating that I was parting with data.
Normally this mightn't have been a big deal, but last month I'd blown my broadband data allowance, even though I'd been holidaying the entire time. More worryingly, nothing was switched on that'd use wireless data. Freeloaders were clearly consuming my broadband, and it had to stop.
Encryption conniptions
The simplest way of sorting this was to use encryption, which would scramble my wireless data, making it inaccessible to broadband bludgers unless they were able to guess my wireless network password. Doing this was a simple matter of that age-old tech advice: RTFM (reading the f****** manual). Following some very simple steps let me enable WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption.
Whilst my wireless data burglary issues were easily resolved, things aren't always that simple. For many, being stuck with an ancient wireless router which only supports the older (and reasonably insecure) WEP encryption (Wired Equivalent Privacy) standard can be a real problem , as most modern wireless widgets tend to only support the more recent, more secure (and alas incompatible) WPA encryption protocol.
Other Options
Taking this conundrum into account, and feeling your need to quickly end the blatant broadband theft, I did some research and found that there were indeed alternative options to switching on encryption.
Configuring your router to only allow devices you specify access to your network is a good bet to deter the bludgers. Doing this requires you enter in the MAC addresses (which are a unique networked hardware identifiers) of each networked device onto a list on your router's setup menu.
Obtaining the MAC Address of your PC is as easy as typing "ipconfig/all" at the windows command prompt. Unfortunately getting MAC addresses from the other networked gadgetry can be tricky.
Luckily, resolving this issue is as easy as downloading a free utility called the Mac Scanner, which lists all the MAC address of every networked gadget.
Restricting access to your wireless network is a good move, especially when combined with my next trick card, which involves making your wireless network invisible to wannabe wireless broadband bandits.
Doing this is as easy as reading your routers manual and getting under its hood to tweak its settings and hide the network name (otherwise known in geek-speak as its SSID) which it broadcasts to identify itself to anyone wanting to connect.
Last but by no means least, some routers will also let you reduce the amount of power used to transmit wireless data. By doing this you not only limit the effective range of your wireless network to within your property, but will also mean that even if a data thief who is capable of thwarting your other security measures should be in the vicinity, chances are they'll have one less network to target.
