Unprotected WiFi @ home = fines for owners - coming to America?

There was a recent article on ZDNet regarding a law in Germany that fines owners of WiFi networks, even in homes, that are unsecured. Is that type of a law coming to America? SHOULD it come to America? We would love to hear your thoughts on this. Not to turn this into a political blog, but I personally feel that the less government involvement into the personal lives of citizens, the better. That being said, you most definitely should lock down your WiFi network in the office or at home.



There are 2 main ways to lock down your WiFi network. You may choose to do one or both. They both have their pros & cons. The first, and most commonly used method, is Encryption. Older model WiFi access points (or routers) used WEP and the newer ones have WEP and WPA (in various forms). The second method is MAC address filtering. No this isn't a way for PC lovers to lock out Apple Mac users, but a fairly secure method of locking out ANYONE except devices with specific MAC (or physical) addresses.

Encryption not only helps to prevent non-authorized users from gaining access to your network, but also encrypts the data flowing to / from your wireless devices; so that should someone intercept the signal, the data would be "gibberish" to the "hacker". The downside to this method is that it does use some overhead and "robs" available bandwidth from users on the WiFi network. This is most obvious on older 802.11b WiFi networks, especially with many users, as they only provide 11Mbps to begin with. The newer models of WiFi routers (802.11g, n) provide more available bandwidth and the slowdown isn't as noticeable.

MAC address filtering provides, in my opinion, more protection from unauthorized users than Encryption, as MAC (physical) addresses are harder to "spoof" (or fake) than cracking an encryption key, and as the admin of the WiFi network, you know exactly whom you have given access to, as you enter the MAC addresses into the WiFi network device. With encryption, one authorized user can give out the encryption key without your permission, allowing unauthorized users onto the network. The downsize to the MAC filter method, of course, is that you have to take the time to enter these MAC addresses, typically with many alpha-numeric characters, into your WiFi device.

Is your WiFi Network secure?
Which method do you use?
After reading this article, will you now secure your network, or change the method of security?

Numerous articles on setting up Encryption
MAC Address Filtering How-To