BBC NEWS | Technology | Warnings on woeful wi-fi security - Joel and I were chatting about WiFi security and he told me he happily leaves his access point at home open. He's got a hippy attitude for "sharing the love"! Anyhow - having set up another friend with a wireless card last week (she is leaching off someone else's connection - she can see five networks from her flat, three of which are insecure!) I thought about the ways I (obsesivley!) secure my access point.

• WEP - they all do it! Apparently 128-bit isn't as secure as it should be, but it's a start
  
  
• Authenticate on MAC address - again, they all do it and it isn't hard to set up. I don't knwo how hard it is to spoof MAC addresses?
  
  
• Wind down the TX power so that you can't leach from the pavement outside - I've placed my access point so that I can cover the house but not outside
  
  
• Exploit the radio-scheduling your AP may have - my DLink allows you to define what times of the day the wireless is active - why spill your network when you're not at home. My AP also allows you to set a "time out" on your wireless - mine times-out every seven days so if I forget to turn it off when I go on holiday it will de-activate itself.