WiFi, or Wireless Fidelity, has been in the news lately, after terrorists used a Mumbai-based businessman’s open wireless Internet connection to send threatening email. Many people disabled their WiFi after reading the news and reverted to their wired Internet connection.

However, WiFi has become a way of life. All new mobile phones are now equipped with WiFi to access the Internet. This is because WiFi is considerably faster, and you do not have to pay the cell phone provider's data charges for EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution), which is slower and increases your monthly bill substantially. Read your email on your phone, download applications or even play games online with others over your WiFi network and you save a lot of money on your cell phone bill. When you are home turn on your WiFi network and pay the standard broadband charges, while you use EDGE outside.

With your wireless network you can access the Internet on your laptop from any room in your home. I regularly get close to 2Mbps download speed with my WiFi, which is on 24 hours a day. Nobody can get into my network, however hard they may try.

Recently I have been roaming around the city with my iPhone and I am alarmed to see the number of open WiFi networks. I could easily join any of these networks and access the Internet. There is no dearth of people who would like to see exactly what you are doing. They can steal your credit card information and other sensitive data.

Here is how you can secure your WiFi connection. The first line of defence is encryption, which encodes the data transmitted between your PC and your wireless router. Unfortunately, most routers (commonly referred to as an ADSL modem) given by BSNL, Tata Indicom or Airtel come with encryption turned off, and many users don't turn it on.

Many are content using the older Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP. But this is not at all secure. The strongest encryption for your network are the Wireless Protected Access (WPA) protocol and the more recent WPA2.

WEP is easy to crack. The keys used by WPA and WPA2 change dynamically, making them nearly impossible to hack. Use a strong password when you set up your wireless network — a combination of letters and numbers of 14 characters or more. If you have an older router that supports only WEP get it changed immediately.

I recommend the latest Linksys routers or Apple's Airport Express or Airport Extreme — all of these support 802.11n, the technical term for WiFi — for your computer networking and home entertainment. They deliver the range, bandwidth, and performance today's multimedia applications and products demand on the Internet.

A word of caution. When you take a broadband connection opt for the WiFi enabled modem/router. Ensure that you get a router that supports the 802.11n protocol.

So how do you go WiFi? Windows’ basic requirement is an ethernet card. Next you need a Wireless USB network adapter. The Linksys’ WirelessG 2.4 GHz adapter works best with any Linksys router. This is called the Access Point. The adapter is installed using a setup wizard that comes on the CD with the product.

When setting it up do not connect the adapter to your PC until you are instructed. Insert the CD. When you get to the welcome screen click “Click Here to Start”. Accept the licence and click Next. Now the wizard will ask you to connect the adapter to your PC’s USB port. Make sure you have a USB 2.0 port.

Next, connect one end of the included USB cable to the adapter’s port. The other end should go into the desktop’s USB port. A green light should light up now. Raise the antenna so that it points straight. Click Next on the “Connecting the Adapter” screen.

The next screen will show you the available networks. You will see your network listed here. If not, click on Refresh. Select your network and click on Connect. Use the SecureEasySetup button and follow the directions on the screen. Choose your WPA2 encryption.

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