Wireless router padlock, should I be concerned? - 12/30/11 07:48 PM
On another Mac, I went to Dashboard today and noticed that I have a widget which shows all wireless routers in the vicinity. I don't even remember downloading that - it must have been in the first burst of enthusiasm when that Mac was brand new.
As I watched, it came up with 5 or 6 other wireless routers, all a telecoms provider, then mine, Netgear.
Some of the other routers were Padlocked. Mine is not.
1. AFAI can recall, I changed the default admin password for my router to a long string of upper+lower case characters and non alphabetic characters too. I seem to remember being very pleased about this personal (to me) string.
2. I live in a very rural area; not a big city.
3. Most importantly: I am exceedingly reluctant to change any of my router settings. This router connects all 4 Macs + printer together, and (obviously) is our collective way out to the internet.
4. It's just paranoia, yes? Just because I happened to see on the widget that this router is not padlocked. What's the worst that can happen, leaving it like that?
As I watched, it came up with 5 or 6 other wireless routers, all a telecoms provider, then mine, Netgear.
Some of the other routers were Padlocked. Mine is not.
1. AFAI can recall, I changed the default admin password for my router to a long string of upper+lower case characters and non alphabetic characters too. I seem to remember being very pleased about this personal (to me) string.
2. I live in a very rural area; not a big city.
3. Most importantly: I am exceedingly reluctant to change any of my router settings. This router connects all 4 Macs + printer together, and (obviously) is our collective way out to the internet.
4. It's just paranoia, yes? Just because I happened to see on the widget that this router is not padlocked. What's the worst that can happen, leaving it like that?