How secure is the wireless connection ?

[ced]

I am currently connected to the internet via wireless. I don't know where it is from, but my laptop was able to connect to the internet wirelessly. What are the risks of using this wireless connection ?
Thank you.

 

[Adam]

Depends on what you're using it for. If you're just browsing the net, I would say no harm. But whoever the wireless network belongs to should think about keeping it private. A lot worse things other than browsing the internet have gotten wireless network owners in a lot of trouble because they left it open to the public.

 

[stuffradio]

however, if they intentionally did it... they could use a packet sniffer and look at all the stuff you're doing on the internets

 

[Wojtek]

Important tip about unprotected wifi:
- restrict it to google news and other non-personnal stuff

I wouldn't login to my server for example. You have no idea who's logging your activity.

 

[Dini]

Is it possible to encrypt a connection without using a password for it? (as in protection)

My laptop gets a "wrong password" message all the time, so I disabled it. However i'm using a MAC filter to prevent outside connections. Will that prevent me from being attacked? I don't think there's some hacker on my neightborhood, but it's better to be safe

 

[stuffradio]

you'll always get "attacked" some how. No way to be 100% secure, as I am learning in my security course... so, best thing you can do is pass protect anything important to you, even that might not be secure though... unless you convert a password to md5, than use that as the password. So, just be careful is all you can get out of this

 

[Decker]

Find out which neigbours it is and tell them
MAC filtering is quite secure but can be spoofed, check which security protocals your own router uses and go for the highest that both router and computer can use.