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Jon Dunn reportingIf you use someone's wireless network without authorization, you're breaking the law. Also, if you have a wireless network set up in your house, it's time to make sure it is secure.
Anywhere along Main Street in downtown Salt Lake, just pop open your laptop and you will find a wireless network. That's the great part about wireless internet; with a setup in your home, you can sit on the couch, watch TV, and browse the net at the same time. Sounds like heaven, right?
Boyd Webb: "It is a radio signal. It's a digital signal."
The problem is, more often than not, when you buy the wireless access point and plug it in, it comes unsecured. The majority of people don't change that, leaving them wide open.
Boyd Webb: "There's an anonymous aspect, you know. Even if I'm your next door neighbor and I log into your network, you don't know it's me.
Boyd Webb is a strategic network planner for the state. He says someone up to no good with just a little bit of knowledge could get inside your computer, let alone neighbors looking for a little free internet.
Boyd Webb: "There is a grey area here. And, really the only people that have been prosecuted, and there have been people prosecuted, but the only cases that have been prosecuted today have been the most egregious."
Federal law does prohibit you from piggybacking on someone's home network, or for that matter, any network you aren't authorized to use.
Boyd Webb: "You wouldn't think of walking in my house and plugging into my network. So why is it any different for you to plug into my wireless network without my permission?"
The key is to make sure you are secured.
Boyd Webb: "Your device should already be able to support WPA. That's the preferred way to basically set up your security. It's basically encryption."
Brad Mertz with X-mission in Salt Lake City says instructions will have come with the access point you purchased. To do the bottom level of security all you need is a password; it's not that hard.
Brad Mertz: "It's no more complicated than changing any aspect of the display on your computer."
