You're wise to be concerned about security when implementing wireless networking products. Luckily, there is an easy solution to protect your data and your network.

Products based on the 802.11b wireless standard hit the mainstream in 2001. These first products came with strong encryption to protect data transmissions from eavesdropping. The encryption was so slow and hard to use, however, that most people simply did not turn it on. The result of this is that most wireless networks deployed by consumers in their homes are very insecure.

The good news here is that as wireless networking products have matured so have the security features. Many people use the Wireless Equivalency Protocol (WEP) to protect their information. WEP has some well-known flaws, however, so you should upgrade to hardware featuring Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), which is a more secure standard.

Most product shipping today have built-in WPA. By enabling this feature, you can force users of your wireless network to authenticate themselves by entering a secret username and password to gain access to the network. For more information, see PC Magazine's helpful article on wireless security.