Wifi question…

[Spencer]

I live in an 18 story apartment building and there are a few open networks around…

Is leaching off these open networks a bad idea? Pros/cons? Could the owner of the network access any info on my computer? If so how can I prevent this?

-Spencer

[Charlie]

Think about it, if you can can access to an open, unsecured network, anyone else can get access to it and what you're leaving open. Yes, they can get at your info.

You're also basing your internet connectivity on something unreliable. What are you gonna do when you can't get it, bitch to the person you're stealing from?

-Charlie

[Spencer]

I have internet - I don't depend on this connection.
I was mostly wondering about security. what do people do on open networks at a coffee shop to keep their info safe?

-Spencer

[Ryan Stewart]

turn off server service if you are using an older windows and turn on the software firewall if you have XP. With the server service turned off your computer doesnt exist to other computers. Its not perfect because a really sly hacker could solve that problem quickly but lets be realisitc. Would a sly hacker give two shits about you?

Ive been leeching off other peoples routers in my complex for some time now. I have service and a wifi router but I have been too lazy to configure it. Besides, this saves our bandwidth for Xbox live.

[Spencer]

Thanks for the reply Ryan.

I have the Windows firewall "on"

So when I connect to one of these networks does it show my computer's name or anything to the owner of the router or would they have be actively looking to learn that type of info?

-Spencer

[DarkWing6]

Kruzen and I don't lock the wifi out our place because we have a lot of friends over that like to access it. We just watch it to see who is using it. If we see somebody that we don't know then we block the IP. That makes it so they cannot use it anymore.

Anybody that leaves their wifi unlocked is either too dumb to know how to block you or is just gonna disallow you from future use. Most people that would be into getting info from other people's computers are looking for bigger fish than you and they usually keep their wifi locked.

[RobertK]

Just disable File and Printer Sharing if you do not want to be easily seen on the network.

IP blocking only works if you are not using DHCP on the router. Otherwise, once you block the IP the computer will obtain a new one whenever that person restarts their computer.

[netcsk]

He probably mean MAC address blocking. That would work, unless the person stealing the bandwidth actually knows what they are doing.

All you have to do is put a password on, which makes it where when someone connects they have to enter the password once, and only once. Secure without any inconvience. That's how we have ours.

[Dave]

i have open wifi at my place in Florida. With guests coming and going, and having differing hardware, etc., it seemed like too much trouble to make it anything but.

yes, people will leech off of it. But I don;t want anyone calling me at odd hours telling me they cant log in to my wifi.

BTW, there is no pc there, so I have nothing exposed but the pipeline to the internet.

[Digitalwave]

He probably mean MAC address blocking. That would work, unless the person stealing the bandwidth actually knows what they are doing.

All you have to do is put a password on, which makes it where when someone connects they have to enter the password once, and only once. Secure without any inconvience. That's how we have ours.

I have a Linksys wireless router at home, what is the process to setting a password for the network?