Detailed Description:

Wifi Security is an important step to take when traveling or using your computer and wifi connection in a public place. You can find wifi connections in many places when you travel, hotels, coffee shops, and sandwich places like Panera bread are very well known for providing free wifi access (and some are charge for it, so be sure to ask when calling around). "Wifi security" is a must, and I will list some simple steps you should always do, these are simple steps that anyone can do even if you do not understand much about computers. (I will not go into details on VPN or address blocking, and other high level security features, as I want to cover the simple steps that everyone should take to help protect your computer, as we are not trying to keep the FBI out, but at least protect it from your average snooper). First off, make sure your firewall is on. If you have XP or later, you already have a firewall so go into your control panel, security center, and make sure the firewall shows on and not off. The second step is to make sure you do not have any shared folders, or at least do not have shared folders that contain information that you do not want others to see. Open your explorer and look for the icon on any folder or drive that shows the hand under the folder. If you see that on any of your folders, then your folder is shared (if it is not shared, it will just be a folder icon without the hand). Right click the folder and choose "sharing and security" and make sure you do NOT have the option selected that says "share this folder on a public network". Uncheck that if selected and click ok so it is no longer shared. The next step is to disable file and printer sharing. Remember that you can always turn these back on later if you wish when you are home, but while on the road and using a public access place, this should be disabled. Go into your control panel and select the security center, then choose the "windows firewall" option at the bottom, and click exceptions. Then make sure the box is NOT checked that says "file and printer sharing". Save your settings by clicking ok. These steps are already far more then most take to help secure their computer. One final step, if you are in your hotel and leaving your pc on as most do, when you are not using it make sure you TOGGLE OFF the wifi connection. No reason to have it connected if you are not using it, and most wifi cards have the software installed that show this option in your system tray, so simply toggle it off (which obviously guarantees no one can access it in any way) and simply toggle it back on when you are ready to use it again. This is a simple step that provides another level of security, as you computer is only available a certain percentage of the time, so why not limit it this way?

One other note I would like to make, unless you REALLY have too, simply avoid logging on to banks and brokerage sites (or any other financial sites) when traveling. If you must sign on to place stock trades or view your bank account then that is one thing, but if it is not necessary simply wait until you get back home as there is no need to risk something getting stolen by logging on at remote or public wifi locations. There is nothing wrong with being extra carefull!

Hope this has helped, feel free to link to this page or bookmark it for future reference if you wish!

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