am i a good kid?

[GKim14]

hello everybody

i just wanted to kind of ask you guys if im pretty nice or just stupid.

i have my own wireless internet in my house and i choose to leave it unprotected. i live in a single family house and the houses are about 30feet apart when compared side by side and as far as i know the only family with kids own their own wifi.

most of my neighbors are stingy and have the wifi locked but i like i said i choose to have my unprotected. would this bite my in the butt sometime? or am i being a good neighbor and sharing?

thanks for your reply in advance

[Ed2020]

A few things to bear in mind:

1. Assume that anyone in the area can see everything that you are doing on the Internet. Most of the time this won't necessarily be a problem but sometimes it will (Internet banking, credit card transactions, etc).

2. You (or whoever pays for the Internet connection) may be held legally responsible for any illegal activity that occurs, even if it is somebody parked in a car outside your house.

3. Your wireless encryption is the first line of defense between people out on your street and the contents of your hard drive. Don't make it any easier than you have to.

In short, I would *never* leave mine unsecured.

Ed.

[pianomanss87]

I think it is nice that you have that attitude especilaly if some one can not afford an internet connetct and can use yours. A few things to think about. The more poeple that are useing your wireless at the same time the slower it can be. If you have important stuff in your computer, financial, personal, business, things you do not want any one to have access to then you might want to lock it down.

Piano Man

[GKim14]

i only have about 10 houses on my street and they are nice families. prolly only 3 houses might be in range. but i guess just to be safe i will password it. thanks guys

[Ed2020]

In all likelihood it won't be a problem. If there are people down the street that you want to allow to use your connection give them the password - at least that limits the risk.

BTW - If you're going to secure it use WPA (or better still WPA2). Only use WEP if some of your devices don't allow use of WPA.

Ed.

[bobb-mini]

Unless u have high-powered router, most likely only 1 house on either side of u can get a usable signal. Walls attenuate signal quickly.

U wanna share, do what Ed says.

U wanna make sure whoever yr sharing it to, they are using 802.11G or N, 'coz if if ANY of them use B, EVERYBODY including you is gonna be dropped down to B speed. And u thought this was so simple eh.

[espanoliPod]

this is just my suggestion, but I would NEVER leave a wireless network unsecured. it's great that you want to share with those who are less fortunate, that shows that you're a caring person, but by leaving it unsecured the network can be accessed by anyone, not just the nice families on your street. a not so nice guy with a laptop can be driving down your street, pick up your wireless signal, and get information that can be potentially devastating for them to have (i.e: bank account numbers, credit card transactions, etc). i agree with one of the statements previously made: if you want to share, secure it, then give the code to those who you want to share it with. that way, you're still being generous and sharing without allowing for the potential of theft/hacking/etc.