Password protect your free wi-fi

Free wi-fi is a wonderful thing. You can do work away from home or just surf the web to pass some time. Heck I’m writing this article on free wi-fi right now. If you use free wi-fi a lot or if you are a business owner who offers free wi-fi to their clients in a waiting area or anything like that listen up! Do not make a purchase over an open wi-fi network. Wireless N networks (the most common on the market today) can extend for up to 300 feet. Think about that, that is one football field. Everyone within that range could, in theory, access your network.
On an unsecured network anyone can see what you are doing using something called a packet sniffer. If they know how to read it and have the time (and thieves do) they can read every bit of information that was sent over the open network. They can read your email, they can see what websites you visited, and they can get your personal information, like your credit card number from that purchase you just made. That is scary.
So what can you do? The obvious thing to do is to never make a purchase over an open network. If you are a business owner with wi-fi for your customers put a password on it. If the thief can’t connect to the network, they can’t see anything that is going on and henceforth can’t steal any information. Your customers may grumble about having to put in a password but in the end it for their own protection.