HAVING worked in IT for over 18 years I am often asked to setup wireless broadband for people. When it comes to connect to the new wireless router you scan for the connection and no matter were I go in Crewe, every time I will find open connections. An open connection is one where there is no encryption set on the router and as such anyone can connect to it and use the internet you are paying for. There are people who go wardriving - that is driving around with a laptop picking up peoples internet either for a free internet or to capture personnel data.

It's worse than that as most people leave the SSID as the default which shows the name of the router and a quick Google search tells you the default password so you can get into it. Once into the router the person have your password and could then access you computer and all your files and also see everything you do. As such, they could steal your bank details, credit card and trash your computer so it wouldn't work. If people knew how easy it was to do they would be very afraid and so they should be. People could be using your internet for free and you wouldn't even know it was happening.

How to protect your self: I can only give general advice as each router is different - if in doubt get expert help.

1. Anti-virus and a firewall are a good start but do nothing to stop most of the open connections as they see it as a local pc on your own network.

2. When you buy a wireless router and set it up change the default password and username. You won't use it often so make it a hard one to guess with numbers and upper and lower case letters.

3. The SSID is the name you see when you search for a network and is set on the router normally by default. It's the routers maker ie Netgear Belkin and this tells people what username and password is set by default. Change the SSID to something that is nothing to do with you. Changing it to 'Jones family' tells everyone it's yours so choose carefully - something like lgtwi164 is good.

4. Set up protection by using WEP, WPA as this encrypts the traffic. Without it, all traffic is in plain text and can be read by another computer.

5. Make sure your pc is password protected as a lot of people don't do this and it's easy for anyone to hack you as they don't even need a password.

6. Read your router manual as most have a setting which will let you see who is connected. Checking this is worth while. Watch out also for the lights flashing which show it's being used - if you are not using it at the time then someone else is.

7. If you use a laptop walk up the street with it and see how far you can get before you lose the network so you know how far away people can access your pc from. Look out for cars parked with people in them who may be wardriving.

8. Beware of anyone who repairs your computer or sets it up as a lot of people leave them to it and as such they have access to all your details and can put software on that lets them connect to your pc from the internet.