I am using wireless broadband internet. Is there any chance that my bandwidth can be stolen by others?

Answer 1

If its not encrypted, yes.. of course. Heck, even if it is encrypted... if your neighbors are smart enough...

... you could always set up a MAC address filter to allow ONLY your computers to access your wireless internet.

Edit:

Message from sandman:

HOWEVER, I CAN NOT TELL IF I AM USING A WIRELESS ROUTER.

I AM SUBSCRIBED TO ONE OF THE TOP TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES THAT PROVIDE WIRELESS BROADBAND INTERNET. WHAT IT DID WAS TO INSTALL ANTENNA WITH POLE TO MY HOUSE -- ANTENNA THAT I NEED TO PLUG IN TO POWER SUPPLY TO FUNCTION EVERYTIME I NEED TO BROWSE THE NET.

I DID NOT SEE ANY OTHER EQUIPMENTS HERE WHICH I CAN CALL AS ROUTER.

Reply:

Oh... that's very different. I see what you're saying. I would imagine that there is encryption between the reciever at your house and the transmitter at the telecom building. This would be similar to the way that satellite television works. The signal is there in the air all the time. But I cant just go outside with a satellite dish and pick up 487 channels. I need the company's special receiver to decrypt the signal into something useful. Make sense? If anybody were hacking the signal (which is of course always possible) then they wouldn't really be using YOUR internet connection, they would be creating their own between them and the transmitting / recieving station.

Answer 2

Yes. If you have a wireless router without some sort of security activated, someone with a wireless card could BORROW your bandwidth to get on the Internet. Refer to the manual that came with the router to learn on how to set up some kind of password for your router.

Answer 3

absolutly!!!! by default your wireless router is UNSECURED you have to actually secure it. contact your router brand customer service on how to do that or if you have linksys you type in on your internet explore 192.168.1.1 then hit enter, then it will pop up a window wher eyou have to enter a username and password now ifyou haven't been here by default the username is blank DONT MESS WITH IT and the password is admin. admin is lowercase. when you get to the home part click on WIRELESS,TAB. then on the submenus click on wireless security, then on the drop down menu where it should say disable, click on it and go to WEP keep everything you see as is except type in a passphrase for example you want it YAHOO then click GENERATE, then you'll see a bunc of letters and njumbers that filled the KEY sections like F9EBD3CCFF that's your security key for your passphrase YAHOO. then when you log on to your wireless you will use F9EBD3CCFF as your security key to log into your router to gain access BE CAREFULL ON WHO YOU SHARE THIS KEY WITH CAUSE IF THEY KNOW IT THEY CAN CONNECT TO YOUR ROUTER WITHOUT YOU KNOWING. hope this helps, now my fingers hurt, LATER GATER

Answer 4

yes. there is always a chance. You need to get it encrypted with a password, but even then, someone can hack into it.