Friday, July 31, 2009

I have used linksys naively for a month. Is my personal info visible to the router's owner? Can they see me?

Can my neighboor who owns the router that I have naively been using, see people who log on to their system? What about hackers? What can happen? Or does a wifi hotspot like, Starbucks, present the same risks?
I have used linksys naively for a month. Is my personal info visible to the router's owner? Can they see me?
They can tell that you are hooked up to there wireless connection, yes, But only if there smart. And obviously there not if they dont use a password for there router connection. Dont worry about it. Use it until they set a password :) Its not illegal. And they can only see info on your system if it is "shared" and if they have your username and password for your computer when u first log on.
I have used linksys naively for a month. Is my personal info visible to the router's owner? Can they see me?
Anytime you connect to a router, you have just connected to a NETWORK. If that network owner wants to they can indeed track everything you do. They can even "capture" every packet sent and received just using very simple software. If you do not have a good firewall, yes they can access your computer as well!





All that being said most owners usually don't. However, there are people out there setting up networks to do just that. They setup an open router in an apartment or hotel etc and hope you do decide to use it so they can "steal" your personnal data! (Happens more and more often these days.)





SO, only connect to networks you know (and have permission to connect into) trust no open network. Hot Spots, like at Starbucks, present the same risks but less so than an unknown system. At hot spots, the risks are from someone within the system, tracking the data rather than the operator. SO anytime you are on a HOT SPOT system, you need to be very careful with what you access.


See this for some good guidelines.


http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/art...


and do a quick search for "Hot Spot Safety" for even more tips





As a footnote, connecting to a network, without the owners permission, is illegal and carries some heavy penalties! If you don't believe that, read this


Wifi theft Laws





http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/cip/hac...


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