Free wireless hotspots in pubs and cafes often don’t have basic security.

This is convenient as it is easy to set up a connection and, best of all, its free.

However, you should be aware that the data that you send over the wireless connection is available to anyone with a relatively simple wireless monitoring device and some form of recording system.

Someone in the corner of the pub, or parked outside, could not only snoop on your emails, but could also easily record your email account details when you login.

They can then use your email account later to get username and password details from websites that send these to your email account if you forget them.

Even if the wireless hotspot has some sort of security through the provison of a code then anyone who has that code is connected to the network and can monitor your wireless traffic.

If you connect to a public wireless network with a laptop that is also used in a home or office network make sure that your shared folders are not available to the person at the other end of the bar by at least changing the default name of your network from WORKGROUP to something else.

Ideally you should also have some sort of firewall protection that allows only trusted computers to connect to your network.

Some public wireless hotspots have a greater degree of security than others with encryption on each wireless channel that theoretically stops eavesdropping on your wireless connection.

However, even if you use a connection that is advertised as encrypted or secure you should be aware that wireless connections are inherently insecure and that even the most secure encryption systems can be cracked.

They switched to our preferred Internet Service Provider (Quik Internet) when we sorted out a connection problem they were having a few years ago.

Since that initial visit they have been the ideal customers: ie prompt payers and no reported problems!

However, that changed a few days ago when I got a call from the new Bursar who demanded a resolution to their long-standing internet connection problems.

This was a surprise to me as I had not been made aware of any long-standing internet connection problems.

The Bursar advised that the internet connection was dropping regularly and could only be restored by switching the router off then on again.

I was sceptical that it was anything to do with the external internet connection as all our remote tests indicated that there was no problem with the connection.

Nevertheless, I arranged a visit to the Chaplaincy to try and get to the bottom of the problem.

The set-up at the Chaplaincy is that there is a Netgear DG834G modem/router connected to a data switch that provides connections to indivudual outlets throughout the premises over a Cat 5 cabling system.

The premises cover 3 x floors over 2 x adjacent buildings.

I first went to their comms room and checked the router and upgraded its firmware.

I couldn’t find anything wrong, the connection was steady and as fast as could be expected.

I then talked to the Bursar and asked about the devices that are connected to the network.

I discovered that in addition to a couple of PCs directly patched to the Cat 5 outlets there are several Apple Macs connected wirelessly through 3 x Time Capsules and 1 x Airport extension device.

The Time Capsules are connected directly to the Cat 5 outlets and the Airport is connected wirlessly to one of the Time Capsules.

Internet access is also made available to students by providing them with the wireless log-in passcode.

The Time Capsules had been introduced after I configured the original network.

I started to suspect that there might be some sort IP address conflict that was causing the internet access to lock up.

I thought that the Time Capsule IP addresses could be conflicting with those provided by the other Time Capsules and with the IP addresses in subnet created by the Netgear DG834G.

I soon discovered that none of the Time Capsules were set to the required Bridge Mode of operation.

With Bridge Mode the IP addresses to the devices connected to the Time Capsules are managed by a connected router which in this case was the Netgear DG834G.

I made the required changes to the Time Capsules and set up a single wireless network with seamless roaming across the 2 x buldings.

The Netgear DG834G now has total control over managing the IP addresses and there is no possibility of an attached device having the same IP address as another attached device (unless one of them is using a fixed IP address).

This appears to have resolved the problems with no reported internet access problems for several weeks.

This situation highlights the fact that the natural assumption of most customers when they have an internet connection problem is that the problem must be with their internet service and they make their first call to their service provider’s support number.

I find this odd since the the natural assumption when an electrical appliance stops working is that it is the appliance that is faulty and not the electricity supply.

The truth is that most internet access problems are caused by the customer’s equipment or local network connections.

In my view a large part of the problem is the misleading error messages displayed by the applications on the user’s computer when the internet is not available.

These usually advise that internet access is not available and suggest that the customer should contact their network administrator or service provider.

While it may be true that the internet access is not available to the application, most customers do not appreciate that the problem could be caused by the  software in their computer (eg  the firewall), or it could be their network connection (wired or wireless),  or it could be their modem or router or as in the above case it could be other devices connected to the local network.

All of these are a much more likely cause of the problem than the external internet connection.