We just got wireless internet at the house. are people going to try to "steel" our connection? the internet guy said that it's password protected and that people can't get on it. what does that mean if they do get on it? why don't we want people connecting to our wireless? if they do could they get our information? i just got a pop up on my computer of a log in. it was just a log in where you put in your username and password. did that mean someone was trying to get in? or was it just another pop up? i know you know a lot about this technology stuff, my smart friend. any information you have would be helpful.
2007-11-24 05:32:19 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
because they can go online for free and yes, they can get your information too..because you are sharing the lines.
2007-11-24 05:36:10 · answer #1 · answered by love2help 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If your wireless access point is password protected it's unlikely that anyone will be able to get access to it. Once you set a password the traffic is encyrpted using the password as a key. If the password is strong enough it cannot be cracked. The WEP encryption keys assigned by Verizon and the other carriers are usually 128-bit values that the CIA might be able to crack with a supercomputer but some kid with a laptop sitting out in the street would be an old man before he got in. If you are really concerned you can add MAC filtering that tells the WiFi modem to permit only a specific set of computers (based on their MAC address) to access the wireless network--that's what I use here.
See http://www.alwaysuseprotection.com/
No. Just because you might be sharing a broadband line with someone else, the traffic on the connection is multiplexed, digitized and scrambled. It would require some pretty special hardware (more than a simple LAN sniffer) to see other channel's traffic.
2007-11-24 13:36:08 · answer #2 · answered by William V 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your wireless is encrypted. If others could gain access to an unencrypted system, they can not only waste your bandwidth by running large downloads on your connection, they have actually got inside your router firewall, and have easier access to try to attack your network. They could also read all your transactions including user names, passwords, addresses, emails, and even clear text passwords. This can make identity theft easy. If you get a popup asking you for a log on, it is asking you to log onto something, be cautious unless you know what you are logging on to. The internet is full of traps set to get information, ensure you keep your virus and spyware software updated. and use popup blocking. I always install the Google toolbar, and NEVER get unwanted popups. Do not install any unknown toolbars, many of them are open lines to problems. Only trust the msn, yahoo and google ones.
2007-11-24 13:43:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
normally people cannot connect to your wireless network without you encryption key (password), so you're okay for now
you don't want people connecting to your wireless because that means that they can use your internet, or if you have file-sharing on, they can access your files (you can check if you have file-sharing if you go to network places and see more than one folder)
password pop-ups is usually associated with file-sharing, in which one computer in the network is trying to access another computer
2007-11-24 13:42:29 · answer #4 · answered by shockdude 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you are a little too petrified. yes depending on the wireless encryption used someone can gain access to your wireless network but i would not worry about it, the only thing they could access is your internet connection, not any of the data on your computer. im sure you would notice someone around your house for a couple of hours trying to break the encryption or ur wireless network anyways.
2007-11-24 13:39:13 · answer #5 · answered by Jake 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋