Hello:

My router and/or my wifi network is NOT secured. I think I should DO that, but I dunno how or where to look to find out. Help.

excon

Tutorial: How to set up WPA2 on your wireless network - Computerworld (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9002706/Tutorial_How_to_set_up_WPA2_on_your_wireless_netwo rk)_

WPA2 is what you want to use... do not use a phrase or something you might see part of in a dictionary... a crypitc combination of upper and lower case numbers and special characters will make it much more difficult to hack.

YOU also want to change your routers admin name and password from default... (they can always be rested by a press switch in the back). I'd also recomment writing down the password and putting it on a lable under your router... if someone gets into your house to see that lable... they already have access to a wired port. And a really good password will be impossible to remember.

Hello smoothy:

Thanks.. But, that sound like MORE than what I need. Isn't there a middle of the road solution?? I don't care if the NSA breaks in, they're gonna anyway... It's the crooks I wanna keep away from..

excon

Actually... most of the other methods take roughly the same amount of work... so you really won't be saving much time or effort. And they are less secure. Do you know if your router supports WPA-PSK? There is usually a big button on the front if it does that's not an on-off switch... those are a little easier to set up as they generate their own password and pass it to each other. None of them are really all that difficult once you've done it before, the first time is the hardest. I can usually put a new device on my network in a matter of a few minutes because I've done it more than a few times..

Everything stated is good advice.

Basically you have to login to your router.

Using a wired computer, with a web browser, you can determine the IP address of the router.

I'm assuming windows, open up the command processor and type "ipconfig" (w/o quotes) and hit enter.

Generally the "Default Gateway" is the ip of the router. It will be something like 192.168.1.1 or 10.1.1.1.

Write the number down, then type it in to the address bar of your web browser. When you hit enter, you will be prompted for a username and password.

If you will find the Default Username and Password in the documentation that came with the router, or with a little digging online, it's usually something like admin and admin or "BlankUser" and password. You can also check out here (http://www.routerpasswords.com).

On main page, finding the wireless settings is not usually too hard, and use smoothy's advice from there. The settings are pretty self explanatory.