Mike, do you like scaring people with suggestive and (in my opinion) misleading comments? The WEP "encryption" (it's a stretch to call it that) was broken years ago. It's easily defeated and is essentially open. That's not even old news. it's very old news. WPA2 is difficult to crack, and a financial conversation using https is very, very, very difficult to intercept. I won't say impossible, but beyond the reach of other than top pros. I think any user here should feel completely safe in using a properly secured home PC and WPA2 wifi signal to conduct any nature of communications over the internet. Yes, a wire can be more secure but the EM radiation wires and PCs emit can also be intercepted too. Are you suggesting every home needs radiation shielding?

Look in your router, in the "Wireless" settings. Look for the place where you set the encryption to "WEP" -- the "key 1" will be nearby. from the linksys forums you can use a generator to give you a custom key which I think is helpful Custom WEP Key however you do know that WEP is not very secure that you should be using WPA or WPA2 right?

it depends on your actual router brand it should have given the instructions in their manual on how to do that but I can help . In general all routers come with a default user name and password, say you have a linksys router you would type in a specific number in the address bar of your browser which would take you directly to the settings area of your router for linksys it is the following URL: http://192.168.1.1/ you would first see the page asking for user name and password the default for it is generally admin for the password and you can leave the user name blank or use admin for it also, that is what I am talking about when I say to be sure you change that because as you can see every single person that owns a linksys will have that same user name and password so getting access to one that has not been changed would be very easy we all know the info, that info is readily available on google. This link shows you what I am referring to. Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router About the WPA2 settings for wifi at this point in time it is the most secure method available on most routers, In the set up you are able to select which type of security you want to use that would be the one to select. In that link I posted above since it is older they mention WEP that was the old one that WPA2 replaced so you would not want to use WEP is is not nearly as secure.(most routers will have a drop down list of several choices you will want the WPA2 personal) They also mention MAC address filtering that is one more way to add security but it is easily spoofed these days so I don't usually bother with doing that. (MAC address has nothing to do with a mac computer by the way, all computers have a MAC address) I personally also like to change the default SSID which is the name you will see when you look at the list of wifi networks it is what your network is called, do not use a real name for this you want to use something that would not direct someone to your home simply by seeing the name of the SSID, so if your name is Jones do not name the SSID Jones or anything like that, for example in my list of my neighbors I see one called Pandoras Box, one called BlueBird, and one with my neighbor Harry's actual name, I know that wifi is my neighbor Harry but the others no idea who they belong to. You can also set it not to broadcast so no one would even be able to see it but that is very easy to defeat with some free programs so best just to use a good name and not bother with that. Most of the routers today will come with software that leads you through all these steps easily one at a time, the important thing to remember is WRITE DOWN these usernames and passwords they are very important especially the really long one that will be your wifi network password, I recommend taping them to the router itself, under it but do not block the vents. You need that wifi password for anyone that comes to visit you and wants to use your wifi network or any device you may want to add to your wifi network. You have the option of allowing it to generate your passphrase for wifi I always do that, it is not something I can possibly remember so I make sure I have it written down in locations I can find it when I need it. The admin password I mentioned is the password to your admin account on your actual pc. I set up limited user guest accounts for people that come over to my house to visit and may need to use the pc, no one ever uses my admin account but me. That would be in your windows settings under accounts where you can create new accounts and set and change passwords.

i agree with davidr, goto dslreports.com and check out the wireless forum. I am a MVM at that site, and the users there KNOW their stuff. your router has built in wireless, is it enabled now? if so, you could be open as we speak. my ex wife got a laptop last year and has not paid for internet since then. she just drives until she gets signal, then sits and surfs. her last house she stole bandwidth from teh neighbors. if she had bad intentions, she could have gotten any number of other things as well. secure your wireless. and as to the "tech" who only recommended security for financial transactions, what the heck does he think checking your bank account and paying CC bills are? ALL wireless connections should be locked down tighter than dick's hatband. hopefully soon the industry will ship with strong security and random passwords, but until the general public understands networking better this won't happen.