Firewall Question

I'm currently using AOL (I know, I know, but my wife likes it) and they have their own firewall setup. That said, when I look at all available network connections I get a choice of signing on with everyone my street. I assume they see mine as well. Is there anything I can do to make my connection private?

 

It's apparent you have wireless. Seeing that your wireless lan exists is one thing. Logging on to it and seeing what's in it is another. If you look in your router's manual, you can find out how to log into your router's management console. You should set up encryption and require strong user names and passwords to log on.

You also might want to change the channel that its on. Many of those ship with a default channel of 6, some with 11. If you are on channel 6, you probably have a lot of company. Other networks in the neighborhood can affect your lan's bandwidth (speed) even if they can't log on just because of crowding the channel.

If when you change channels you have connection issues, try another. Certain channels, for you, may get interference from your cordless phones, microwave, etc. and you can find one that works by experimenting a little.