Safe Luxury

How safe is a home wireless network?

Without adding the security (anyone nearby can access) and with the added (for example Linksys) security. My friend is reluctant to use a secure network because someone (or a bot) hacked into his computer using his unsecure network.

Public Comments

1. its pretty much harmless unless you have a smartazz computer nerd who just wants to mess your stuff up.
2. Hello, Yes, it is really unsafe. Especially when you do not have a security pass code. Anyone nearby can access your network and see things like bills.
3. Or the simple problem of they using your Internet, which will slow your usage (since you have to share with them).
4. Home wireless networks are tricky and dangerous, in addition to being addictively convenient. If you have an unsecured wireless network, anyone driving down the street with a laptop looking for an open network can drop in and leech off your network. That doesn't sound too bad, except that people who do that sort of thing generally aren't just looking to check their email--they want to commit cybercrimes and get the blame shuffled off onto someone else. I'm not sure what security you mean exactly about the added Linksys security; your question is a little confusing. But basically, if you want to be reasonably secure: You should enable encryption on your router. There are two forms, basically: WEP and WPA. WEP is almost useless; it's almost trivial to break, though it's at least better than nothing. The other form, WPA, is much better. But, the value of either depends entirely on the security key (passcode) you're using. If you use a passphrase of over 20 characters, you're pretty secure. If you use a passWORD of under 8, you're asking for trouble. Brute-force attacks can be made on networks with weak passcodes in minutes or hours.