If you are setting up a wireless network in your home (or business) you need to consider how close and easily can people get close to use your signal as away to the Internet. If you are in a rural area with a large lot then signal borrowing may not be a concern of yours as you would see them sitting outside to get your signal. If you are in an urban area there may be a number of other houses/businesses who can use your signal. Remember if they use your signal they do not have to pay an ISP for the connection and you still are paying for a connection. Others using your signal may not be a concern to you.
The reason for the concern is two folded. One is wireless is sharing the bandwidth to all connecting so if a number connect you would lose your connection speed. The second is that they are now in your network and if you are not using passwords (good ones use numbers, letters, different cases and not whole words) and they can more easily get in your computer.
The easy way around this is to implement a password different than the default password to your wireless router/switch so they can not easily change your network settings and by using either a WEP or WPA key.
Remember if your box settings change you can always use the default switch to set back to default. Usually this is done by pressing a small button using a point of some type. Be careful if using a pencil as you do not want point to break off and get stuck in there.
The WEP and WPA key will require anyone connecting to your network to use the password you have set
I would also suggest you change the SSID from the default (linksys on linksys routers) to something that identifies it as a private network and where. For instance my home network has watt for an SSID. Then if anyone does get on my network they cannot claim not knowing it was a private network. There are some that would suggest not broadcasting SSID but if you do not broadcast it, you will have more difficult task of attaching as you will not know if receiving the signal when trying to connect.
The Georgia Kiwanis are holding a competition again for the best club web page and best division web page. The judging will be done in July.
You must notify the Georgia webmaster, Dwight, by e-mail, dwight-watt@att.net, by June 30 that you want your web page in the competition. In the e-mail please give the correct url to the web page. Make sure during July the web page is available as the judges will be looking at the web pages at their convenience and judging.
The rules for the competition are:
| 1. | Link to Georgia District web site |
| 2. | Link to International web site |
| 3. | Information on officers |
| 4. | Projects - planned and completed. |
| 5. | Meeting times and locations |
| 6. | Usability of web site |
| 7. | Contact information. How to contact an officer (phone or email), although not all need to be listed as some may not want phone or e-mail listed, but someone to contact if interested. |
| 8. | Pictures |
| 9. | Support of youth organizations |
| 10. | Easiness of navigation for website and all parts working |
| 11. | Friendliness of website. |
| 12. | Currentness of site. |
I would encourage everyone when updating their websites to always leave a site posted. You can do the new one with different name for the index file and then when ready to launch simply change that file name to index. If you remove your page for a time period then you may have people look for it and get page not found error and think you are no longer operating. Using a different opening name will keep most people out of the new and allow you to have people review it. This is approach I used in both major update in the past 3 years I have done to the state site.