wireless router pass-word

[anotheoldgit]

I have just set-up a wireless router, but I am using it without a pass-word, the reason for this is because when I put a pass-word in on set-up I could not get on the internet, but when I got rid of the pass-word everything worked OK.

What am I doing wrong and what are the dangers, if any of logging on with out a pass word?

[Ethel]

Not using a password means anybody in the locality can log on to your internet connection - exactly the same way you can.

The could mess with the settings and block your connection, albeit temporarily. If they were very clever they could access information on your computer.

They could use your internet to download child porn; send spam to millions of people; send threatening emails. All of which would be traceable to you.

When you are setting your connection up, are you hard wired?

[anotheoldgit]

Wow that's frightening Ethel.

If you mean was the cable modum, router, and PC connected by Ethernet cables the answer is yes, in fact they still are, and everything is working OK except I haven't entered a wireless encryption key, I have a Wireless network name (SSID).

The fact was I could not get on the internet on set-up when using my special encryption WPA key, when I deleted this from it's window I could.