The best way to protect your wireless home network is with encryption such as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), or by restricting access to the unique Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of specific machines. WPA and WEP encryption uses a 128-bit password to keep out intruders, while a MAC filter compares the unique identity of an attempted connection with a list of accepted identities.

The most dangerous aspect of these public networks is that they are, by definition, open to access by everyone—even those with malicious intent. In the same way that leaving your home network open to unwanted users is dangerous; similarly, connecting to a public network with unverified users poses a security threat.