How to protect your home network

For many people, it’s not the appeal of working in their pajamas that convinces them to make the leap; or the chance to sleep in a little later and still be at work on time; or even the chance to avoid sitting in traffic every morning and evening. No, telecommuting’s big attraction is often the simple joy of trading in your cubicle for your backyard garden. When you work from home, no one knows if you are typing e-mail while getting a tan on your deck, or grilling hamburgers on the barbecue.

It's home wireless networks that make these visions come true. After all, if you are becoming untethered from the office, you might as well be untethered at home, too.

Ask anyone who has wandered around their home with their laptop, from TV to fridge to front yard, and not missed an e-mail. It’s liberating. For both you, and unfortunately, your data.

You knew there was a catch, didn’t you? If you can walk around your house picking your files out of thin air, so can anyone else. In fact, the snooper doesn’t even have to be in your house. The little radio station you install in your home to beam the Internet around the place doesn’t understand property lines. So when you go wireless, you should know that neighbors several houses away can see what you are doing. Yes, they can literally pick your data right out of the air.

And the truth is, experts believe most home wireless networks are left casually insecure like this, with workers unknowingly sending this newly “liberated” data up and down the block all day long.

“I have a friend that ... can see five of her neighbor’s wireless networks,” said Christopher Thompson, vice president of marketing for Sniffer Technologies, which sells wireless security products.

Consumers may have noticed in recent months that a new line of wireless products based on an improved “G” standard have started popping up in electronics stores around the country. These products, known also by their full name, “802.11G,” zip data around your house twice as fast as the old products.

But don’t be confused: there’s nothing in the G-standard that makes these devices any more secure than the old “802.11B” wireless. So even with the latest equipment, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done before you should work wirelessly at home.

Lose your pajamas license
That’s because broadcasting your e-mails to mom is one thing; telecommuters broadcasting company secrets down the block is quite another. It’s enough to quickly get your license to work in your pajamas revoked. But the good news is, there’s a lot you can do to severely decrease the odds that you’ll be snooped.

Protecting your home wireless network is a good news/bad news story. First, the bad news. Most experts will tell you that there’s practically no way to make it completely safe from prying eyes. Even the most widely available encryption technology has been cracked.

But the good news is there are several simple steps that home wireless users can take which greatly reduce the likelihood that someone will snoop your data. Four, to be exact.

Don’t call attention to yourself

Change your name

Scramble your data

Telecommute through a tunnel