Re: Elementary newbie question

[Ted <ted99@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rob Morley wrote:

Thanks for your input - it's quite educational! There are a 
few more questions below but if you are growing weary of 
responding, not a problem.

> On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:48:51 +0100
> Ted <ted99@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Rob Morley wrote:
> >
> > > Just set up the encryption (WPA is more secure than WEP),
> > Sounds good. What exactly is it that is being encrypted?
>
> The data content of each packet sent over the wireless connection.

Right. So does that mean that the router encrypts the 
packets and that some decryption software is required to be 
installed on the laptop receiving the packets?

> One other security measure I forgot to mention: change the SSID
> that your router uses from the default to something obscure - hackers
> may scan for default values as a quick way of finding networks that
> have had SSID broadcast disabled (lots of hardware comes configured with
> values like 'wireless', 'WLAN', 'linksys' etc.)

So this would mean the router of the network to which I 
connected was broadcasting SSID and my laptop automatically 
picked it up and joined in the network?

Is there a way of preventing the laptop from connecting to 
broadcasting foreign networks?

If I turn off SSID broadcast on my router, presumably I need 
to configure something on the router together with a 
matching counterpart something on the laptop so that the 
laptop will find and connect with the router.

Ted