Do I need a WiFi password if I have no neighbours?

il gatto

Hi,
Is it necessary to have a wifi password if your house is isolated from neighbours and public roads? I realise it’s not a big deal to change the password to something easy to remember but there’s nobody in range of the router except our own household. Is it okay to turn off security on the router?
Thanks.

Victor

Potentially someone you don't want using your IP address will use it, whether that is a teenager, visitor or someone more nefarious.

jimmycrackcorm

If it's ok to leave your house door unlocked, then it's ok to leave your WiFi without passwords.

Quantum Erasure

You wouldn't download a car

il gatto

Victor wrote: »

Potentially someone you don't want using your IP address will use it, whether that is a teenager, visitor or someone more nefarious.

But is that a case of someone hacking via the internet or physically sitting outside the house and logging on? There’s no hope of anyone being in range of the router and going unnoticed. Does having the password switched off have ramifications for your IP address over the internet?

GerardKeating

il gatto wrote: »

Is it okay to turn off security on the router?

In theory yes, but setting up the passwords only take moments, so why not ?

il gatto wrote: »

Does having the password switched off have ramifications for your IP address over the internet?

Nope.

Bikerman2019

Set a password, even something simple. Basic security is easily done and takes seconds.

If there's no hope of anyone being near your house, and you're not a target for some type of information, then you don't need it.

Someone would have to physically be there to join the network to do harm.

il gatto

GerardKeating wrote: »

In theory yes, but setting up the passwords only take moments, so why not ?

I will probably do that but I was just wondering if leaving it off had any ramifications beyond someone hiding in your garden and connecting to your router.
We’re 300m from the road up a private lane and over 200m from the nearest house. Our WiFi range doesn’t reach the end of our garden. So it’s practically impossible for anyone to use our connection unnoticed.

DopeTech

There's really no reason not too. Yes you will need to input the password into all your devices once but after that you can forget about it. In theory anyone could walk or drive up to outside your house in any time of the day or night and connect to your local area network and connect to any devices on it. I.e if your laptop is switched on they can browse your files. No matter how unlikely it is someone would do it there's no real good reason not to do it and give you peace of mind.

DopeTech

DopeTech wrote: »

There's really no reason not too. Yes you will need to input the password into all your devices once but after that you can forget about it. In theory anyone could walk or drive up to outside your house in any time of the day or night and connect to your local area network and connect to any devices on it. I.e if your laptop is switched on they can browse your files. No matter how unlikely it is someone would do it there's no real good reason not to do it and give you peace of mind.

Are you saying a hacker could do that? Or a regular person?

DopeTech

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Are you saying a hacker could do that? Or a regular person?

Anybody with basic IT knowledge provided he has network sharing on.

TheChizler

DopeTech wrote: »

Anybody

Maybe if you shared your files with no password or never ran updates.

il gatto

DopeTech wrote: »

There's really no reason not too. Yes you will need to input the password into all your devices once but after that you can forget about it. In theory anyone could walk or drive up to outside your house in any time of the day or night and connect to your local area network and connect to any devices on it. I.e if your laptop is switched on they can browse your files. No matter how unlikely it is someone would do it there's no real good reason not to do it and give you peace of mind.

Yeah. I’ll just change it to something easier to remember for friends and visitors. Thanks.

DopeTech

il gatto wrote: »

Yeah. I’ll just change it to something easier to remember for friends and visitors. Thanks.

Yeah or even check your router. Most have a guest wifi function you can enable meaning guests can get wifi but not access to the devices on your network.

GerardKeating

il gatto wrote: »

We’re 300m from the road up a private lane and over 200m from the nearest house. Our WiFi range doesn’t reach the end of our garden. So it’s practically impossible for anyone to use our connection unnoticed.

Same here, unless we have WiFi enabled horses/cows/sheep in the fields next door

il gatto wrote: »

Yeah. I’ll just change it to something easier to remember for friends and visitors. Thanks.

My router has an option for a Guest WiFi, less access that the normal wifi. Guess Wifi has internet access, but cannot access the router or other computers on the network.

AllForIt

Compromise; just make the password easy to tap in, like 88888888

biko

It's probably unnecessary but do it anyway

dam099

il gatto wrote: »

We’re 300m from the road up a private lane and over 200m from the nearest house. Our WiFi range doesn’t reach the end of our garden. So it’s practically impossible for anyone to use our connection unnoticed.

Just because your regular devices don't see a signal at end of garden doesn't mean its non existent, the hackers that try and piggyback on Wi-Fi can get quite creative with antennas and may be able to get a useable signal where you cant.

That said if you are fairly remote unless you think someone has a reason to target you there are likely easier opportunities to get some free Wi-Fi.