Wifi, what is it and why is security important? WiFi. We’ve all heard of it, but do you really know what it is, how it works? It’s definitely a safety thing that we need to pay attention to.
Host: With us is Tom Vodak, Operations Manager with Madison Geeks, thank you for joining us.
Tom: Thanks for having me today.
Home and Business WiFi Security
Host: Can we start at the beginning, what’s the difference between WiFi and the internet?
Tom: The subject actually came up the other day. We were talking with a customer at her house, and she said “I’ve got internet, I’ve got WiFi don’t I?” And we said, well, maybe, maybe not it depends on your internet modem as far as what service you have. If you’ve got a cable modem, or ATT, TMobile a device that has WiFi on it. Usually a WiFi device will actually look like this. It has these geeky little antennas sticking out of it. Everyone has probably seen one of these. But, you have to know what your service provider is providing you. If you don’t have WiFi with your modem, and you want to have WiFi, then you need to have a WiFi router, which is basically what I have in my hand today. This is a WiFi router that connects to your modem which provides your internet service. WiFi is just the local area wireless network that you operate within your house or business within pretty much 50 feet of this device.
Host: Okay, so how does it work? It seems like this magical sort of box…
Tom: Well, again, this is actually a router that’s attached to a modem, basically your connection to the internet. So the modem connects to the internet, this connects to the modem and this talks to the modem and this goes to the internet through that modem.
Host: Oh, okay.
Tom: And that’s how that works. And all of your devices connect to this. In a household you can have several of these WiFi devices though, you don’t actually have to have just one. For example we were just out in Cross Plains a few weeks ago. It was a rather large house that actually had 5 of these WiFi routers setup, because the challenge with a larger house is, again, you only have so far, like 50 feet from this device, to get a signal to your devices, connectivity to your mobile devices. And the problem is that this is pretty much line of sight. When you start going through walls the signal degrades immensely. So what you have is, say a three story house you almost need to have one of these devices on each level. And then of course, if you want to have somebody in the back yard on the deck who’s able to connect you have to have a device that’s close to the deck to be able to connect.
Host: Have you explained this a time or two before?
Tom: Yes, several times (laughter)
Host: We can tell this isn’t Tom’s first time! You explained that well. You’ve made it very simple for us. I’m curious about ..you’re talking home WiFi, what is the difference between that and when you’re in a business and you connect to WiFi?
Tom: When you’re in a business you’re connecting to the same type of device. The challenge you’ve got in either a home environment or a business environment is that whoever is on that network, who ever is on this device, can literally see all the other devices are connected to it. So if you are at the mall and you are connected to their free WiFi, you’ve got an opportunity for other people to actually look at your device if the settings on your device aren’t set up properly, Or you have software that keeps people out.
Host: So you are a little more visible if you haven’t taken precautions ahead of time?
Tom: That’s right.
Host: Interesting. That’s kind of freaky.
Tom: Yes. freaky and very scary. Security of data on your local network is a big concern. Plus, if you’re at home too, if you’ve got kids, your kids may have given out your password to their friends. So, they come over to use your WiFi network and, well, if your laptop is hooked up to your WiFi in the den, for example, kids, being the way they can be, they may get into the network and hack around to see what’s going on. So, security, WiFi passwords are important. And just being cognizant of that, that’s actually what can happen with these devices. If you’re not aware of how they actually work and operate it can be very scary.
Host: So something to keep in mind when you’re at Starbucks using the WiFi. You mentioned helping someone in their home, so that’s something Madison Geeks will do?
Tom: Yes, we certainly will do. Folks give us a call. We actually will come out on-site and help you setup your WiFi devices. If you have a business or a home where you’re wanting to put in WiFi we offer a consult on that to be able to tell you what devices you need and we can actually sell you the devices or you can go out and buy the devices yourself and have us go ahead and put them up. It is a little bit of a challenge when you’re connecting 5 or six of these devices or access points to be able to get to the internet. It is a little bit complicated, but it needs to be setup properly.
Host: Absolutely. We are about out of time, and I would love to talk to you more about what we do when we’re in that Starbucks, what kinds of security measures you need to take, so maybe next time we can talk about that.
Tom Vodak of Madison Geeks appeared on a January 2017 Channel 57 WI57 WIFS Madison Girl Talk segment to talk about Home and Business Wifi Security.