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Wireless technology brings convenience.  We can sit and enjoy the warm summer day out on the patio with our wireless laptops connecting us to the outside world.  But is that connection secure?  Are we sharing our connection with others?

For many of us, we purchased a wireless router from one of the many office supply, and home electronic stores.  We plugged it in, connected it to our high-speed modem and that was it.  Voila we had our convenience wireless connection.  If this sounds familiar, you may not be WEP’d.

WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy.  WEP is a security protocol for wireless local area networks. It is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired local area networks.

So what does that all mean?  Let me start by explaining wired networks.  Wired networks are inherently safer due to the fact that one must connect to the network via a network cable.  With a good firewall in place to protect you from an intruder off the Internet, a wired network provides you with a relatively safe work and play zone.  Generally outsiders cannot access your network without you knowing about it. 

A wireless network using the standard default settings that most home and small office versions of wireless routers come configured with do not provide you that same level of security.  It is very much like locking the back and front doors of your home but leaving your side door wide open for the more inquisitive intruder to find and let themselves in. 

Let me explain further.  The standard wireless router comes configured as an unsecured device.  While you can conveniently connect your wireless laptops and other devices to it, so can anyone within a range of up to 46 m (150 feet) indoors and 92 m (300 feet) outdoors.  How well do you know your neighbours or that car that keeps parking across the street?  It sounds a little extreme, and for most of you it probably will be, but do you really want to risk being part of the small percentage that is a victim of identity theft every year?  Especially since configuring your wireless network to use WEP isn’t difficult, and gives you that added level of security. 

WEP secures your wireless network by requiring those using your network to have to input a “key” to connect to it.  There are two encryption levels that you can choose from to use for your key - 64bit or 128bit.  When in doubt use the higher level of encryption.  If you login to your router (please check the manual that came with your router for the instructions on how to login), you can usually find the WEP setup in a “security” menu under your wireless settings - again check your manual for instructions on how to set up the WEP for your particular router.

When you configure your WEP, you will note that there are four keys - you only need to configure one of them.  Remember which key you chose, so that you can configure your wireless devices to use the same key.  Copy the key you created and store that copy someplace safe.  You will need to configure every wireless device that you add to your network with that key in order for it to access your network.

While you are in configuring you WEP, if it is the first time you have ever accessed you router, you should change your router’s password.  The default passwords are well known, so again for your security you should really change it.

As a computer techie, I’ve been installing and servicing more and more wireless networks.  Each time I set up a new router, I am astounded by the number of unsecured wireless routers I see when I configure the client’s computers to connect to their router.  Generally there is at least one unsecured network that anyone could attach to easily.  What is increasingly disturbing is the number of times I have discovered this is settings where data privacy should have been paramount to the network; for example a multi-doctor clinic I recently did an install in.  Each doctor had their own computer equipment -two networks at that clinic were running unsecured wireless networks!