If you are ever at your apartment and you think the internet is "free" aka they dont have a password- dont do it. These people are usually hackers and can hack into your ipad or comp and take what they want- all your info- your passwords. It happened w my first ipad and no one who does this is necessarily stupid- its just who can afford internet? Well, now is not so bad as it was 2 years ago, but just dont do it. Also get a pass on your network so that you dont have other people "borrowing" your internet.
best,
Ana

Well, not exactly hacking into your iPad, but yes logging into an unencrypted network is never a good idea, as anyone on the network can save all transmitted data.

But honestly, not being able to pay for Internet is not an excuse to use someone else's Internet, even if it is open.

ya thats true---- in college though people do stupid things :P

Don't most colleges have free wifi anyway?

Or at least use a VPN service to encrypt the communication.

not when ur not in the dorms- u end up going to apartments- thats what happened at UCI senior year

Best options for setting up home wireless:
- Use WPA2 security. WEP and WPA have both been "cracked" and are not secure. However if the only options are WEP or WPA then something is better than nothing until you can replace the router.
- Disable SSID broadcast. While it certainly won't stop someone from finding your network it will keep out the majority of people. You will need to manually set up your WiFi capable devices with your network if you do this.
- Change the default SSID and username/password.
- Change the default channel to either 1 or 11. A good thing to do is to find out what channels are in use around you and then use one that is not close to those but you should only use 1, 6, or 11 for 802.11b/g.

When using an untrusted network (basically any network that you do not control) you could set up a VPN at home and connect to that and then access the Internet through your home connection. The VPN will encrypt your traffic and keep it safe from prying eyes. If you do not use a VPN only access websites through their HTTPS site. This also encrypts your traffic. If you go in through HTTP then anyone with a packet sniffer can see exactly what you are seeing including usernames and passwords.

A safe rule of thumb is that if you don't need to sign into a specific website using an untrusted network then don't.

Dave

Sent from my iPad using iPF

Originally Posted by sgtcasey

Disable SSID broadcast. While it certainly won't stop someone from finding your network it will keep out the majority of people. You will need to manually set up your WiFi capable devices with your network if you do this.

Actually this is of doubtful value: anyone who is looking to break into your network to steal data or bandwidth can scan for existing wifi networks easily enough, and disabling SSID only makes troubleshooting your own network that much harder if you have network problems. It prevents a random passer-by from picking up the network, but that's about it.

A more effective measure is to have a strong WPA2 key/password: for our home network, we use a random 63-character long key on WPA-PSK encryption.

Originally Posted by tzimisce

Actually this is of doubtful value: anyone who is looking to break into your network to steal data or bandwidth can scan for existing wifi networks easily enough, and disabling SSID only makes troubleshooting your own network that much harder if you have network problems. It prevents a random passer-by from picking up the network, but that's about it.

A more effective measure is to have a strong WPA2 key/password: for our home network, we use a random 63-character long key on WPA-PSK encryption.

Yep that's why I said it won't stop everyone. As for troubleshooting it's a simple thing to turn it back on. :-)

Dave

Sent from my iPad using iPF

Very good advice here, and more importantly it is something i understand Lol

Sent from my iPad using iPF, using iOS 4.3.2

Just do all three stated above to be safe...
-Rename SSID and change default password
-Use WPA2
-Don't broadcast SSID

That's pretty much the best you can get without enterprise level hardware.

You could also MAC address filter but that might be getting a little too technical for most people.