An article appeared in the HT today about securing your Wi-Fi connection so that no one else can use it for anti-social purposes. I fully believe that you should protect your Wi-Fi not only because other people might use but also to save on your internet bill if you are not on an unlimited internet access plan.

Having said that I do not agree with what the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) Chairman Mr. Nripendra Mishra had to say.

There is panic at the highest echelons of government. Last month, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposed a list of guidelines to the Department of Telecommunications on “how to curb the men- ace of unregulated Wi-Fi s”.

“We suggested that the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) get a list of Wi-Fi users in their clientele and make sure they maintain a log of users accessing the networks at home, office or public places,” said Nripendra Misra, TRAI Chairman.

In a couple years time pretty much everyone will be using Wi-Fi in their homes and offices and there is no way seeing the internet explosion that the ISPs can keep a list of people with Wi-Fi. Such an idea is not only NOT feasible but borderline stupid something which was not be expected from the TRAI Chairman.

This image on the left also appeared in HT along with the article… I wanted to point out that by just plugging your wireless router to the electricity socket will not enable you to use the internet; it has to be plugged in with the internet modem also.

You can then log in to your router admin and make it password protected, so that only you are able to access it. There is no need to switch off the Wi-Fi router after every use if you have it password protected, switching the device on-off all the time will do more harm then good.