Whether or not to secure their wireless network is a tough decision for many people. I don’t want to get into a long moral and ethical diatribe about Internet access sharing, but any discussion of wireless networking has to touch on it. When you set up a wireless router, you have to decide whether you want to open it up to the public or keep it for yourself. There are arguments for both sides of the issue.

Many people feel that it is good to leave your router open for anyone who is passing by to connect to. This means that your neighbors will all be able to use your Internet access for free. Unless your neighbor is downloading massive quantities of full-length movies or something, you really will not notice any drain on your bandwidth. It is a good way to be neighborly and when you are traveling to a friend's house and looking for a wireless signal to get online, you will be really glad when you find someone who leaves their connection open.

The other side of this argument is that it leaves you open to more than just sharing your connection. You are letting people connect to your network. If they wanted to, they could gain access to your computers or even watch your network traffic and capture your passwords, etc. While this might not be a huge concern to every home user, if you own a business this could be a dangerous proposition.

Many people also feel that if you have to pay for your connection, why shouldn't your neighbors and passer-bys also have to pay? We could argue this point for days on end, and invoke everything from federal laws to ancient Eastern philosophies to find an answer, so I will let you make your own decision. This guide is intended for those who have decided to keep their neighbors and intruders off their network/Internet connection.

For the lawyers in the audience, I will also add that you should check with your cable or DSL provider and find out if sharing your connection is a violation of their Terms of Service that you agreed to when you signed up for service.

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