Originally Posted by RichardPON
Don't I have to have some osrt of security encryption or something for the wireless network?
Wireless security is really two things:
1. Stopping someone from using your adsl connection to surf the net.
2. Stopping someone from having a look at what data is being transmitted over your network.
To ensure 1)...
-Stop your wireless router/access point from broadcasting its SSID (the wireless lan's unique id) - This will ensure someone can't just look for WLANs and hop on, they would need to know your SSID and type it into their setup.
-Enable MAC address filtering - the MAC address is a unique reference associated to a piece of network hardware (wireless card, etc...). By only enabling those you have, you will stop someone from getting onto your network, even if they guessed your SSID. Hacking this is VERY difficult so ultra secure.
Now, none of this will stop someone from peeking at the wireless stuff that's going to and from your computer, so you are not 100% secure, whether you want to bother with the next steps or not is up to you. After all, what have you got to hide really...
To ensure 2)...
-You can setup a WEP key which is used to encrypt all transmissions over your wireless lan. The key is setup in the access point (random numbers and letters), and you will need to input it into every computer you want to have on your wireless lan (only once
.
The problem with WEP encryption is that is takes a little extra work for the computer to encrypt/decrypt everything and, all things being equal, might slow your connection down a little.
To be honest, I only bother with 1), cos I don't like free loaders and someone "could" get up to no good using your ADSL connection, and the police would turn up on your doorstep while the culprit is long gone.
PS: If you are worried about credit card details, etc... you really need to worry more about the internet itself than your wireless lan.
As long as you only use secure sites when sending sensitive data, the data will be encrypted as it leaves your PC, wireless lan or not, for someone to hack into it would take a great deal of effort, if at all possible.
Now, go buy some stuff and come back to us when you try and set it all up
