1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question. Can 3 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:19,479 Speaker 1: you be arrested for downloading child porn even if you 4 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: never do? And the fact is that you can. There 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: have been several recent arrests that should send shivers down 6 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: the spine of anyone who has installed a wireless router, 7 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: also known as a WiFi router. These little boxes allow 8 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 1: your laptop, your iPad, and other wireless devices to connect 9 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:39,800 Speaker 1: to the internet. Tens of millions of people in the 10 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: United States have installed wireless routers because they make it 11 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: so easy to connect to the Internet. It turns out 12 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: that if you install a wireless router, and if you 13 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,480 Speaker 1: leave it in its default settings and you turn it on, 14 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: you've opened yourself up to a major vulnerability. Your new 15 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: wireless router creates a wide open WiFi hot spot with 16 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: a diameter of several hundred feet. Because you have used 17 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,480 Speaker 1: the default settings, which means that you have set no 18 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,720 Speaker 1: password to prevent people from connecting, anyone nearby can now 19 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: connect into your hot spot. It could be a neighbor, 20 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 1: the guest of a neighbor, or someone parked on a 21 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:20,759 Speaker 1: nearby street. Because you have no password on your router, 22 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 1: anyone nearby can connect to your router in just a 23 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: few seconds. When they connect, you will not know that 24 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: it's happening unless you were to get in and look 25 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: at the routers log files and its tools and so on. 26 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,760 Speaker 1: And you may not ever care. If they read a 27 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: few web pages or check their email with your connection, 28 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,200 Speaker 1: that tiny bit of bandwidth they use would be imperceptible. 29 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,959 Speaker 1: But if they start watching a streaming video off of 30 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: YouTube or Netflix, you may notice that your connection has 31 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 1: gotten really sluggish, and you may have no idea why. 32 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: The bigger problem, however, is child porn. If the person 33 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,680 Speaker 1: connected to your hot spot downloads child pern bography, or 34 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: any other illegal material, federal agents are going to trace 35 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: the illegal activity to your wireless router, and then they're 36 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: gonna come after you. Once they find you, the attitude 37 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: will be to arrest now and ask questions later. Meanwhile, 38 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: the person who did the downloading is invisible. It may 39 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: take days or weeks for your innocence to be confirmed. 40 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: And the amazing thing is that you will have no 41 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: idea that it's happening at the time it's happening. So 42 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,800 Speaker 1: what can you do to prevent this scenario from unfolding. 43 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: There are actually three different things you can do, all 44 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: of which require a little bit of fiddling with your router. 45 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: If you are not technology minded, this fiddling may be 46 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,360 Speaker 1: uncomfortable and you may want to enlist the help of 47 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 1: a friend who is technology minded or hire someone to 48 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,679 Speaker 1: configure things. The basic idea is that your WiFi router 49 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: has a way to manipulate its settings. You need to 50 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:56,959 Speaker 1: log into the router and at the very least set 51 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: up a WiFi password. How do you log into the router? 52 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 1: The owner's manual for the router will contain instructions on 53 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: how to do this. If you can't find the manual 54 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: that came with your router, you can find it on 55 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:12,560 Speaker 1: the internet by typing the model number into a search engine. 56 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: Some routers even come with a CD that will help 57 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: you through these steps. So what you do is you 58 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 1: log into your router, find the wireless settings page, and 59 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 1: create something called a w P A password for your router, 60 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: not a web password. A w P A password is 61 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: the kind of password you would like to create. This 62 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:35,680 Speaker 1: is one of those things that takes thirty seconds. If 63 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 1: you know what you're doing. As soon as you set 64 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: that password, you've eliminated the threat of accidental arrests for 65 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: child porn. Of course, you've also just disconnected all your 66 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: own devices as well. They can't connect in now that 67 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,880 Speaker 1: you've set a password, So now you need to go 68 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: to your laptop, your iPad, and all your other devices 69 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: and type in the password there as well. They will 70 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: then be able to reconnect to your password protected wireless 71 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: rout uter, and chances are you will never have to 72 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: think about it again. If you want to be even 73 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: more secure, there are two other things you can do. 74 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: The first thing is to turn off something called S 75 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: s i D broadcasting. This is a feature that makes 76 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: your network visible to anyone who's nearby. Once you turn 77 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,600 Speaker 1: off S s i D broadcasting, you can connect because 78 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: you know the S s i D that's one of 79 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:25,719 Speaker 1: the things you set in your router settings, but other 80 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:28,919 Speaker 1: people will not see your network. The other thing you 81 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: can do is turn on Mac address screening. You can 82 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: enter the MAC address of each device you want to 83 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: connect into your network. Anyone with an unknown Mac address 84 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,920 Speaker 1: will be denied access, even if they guess the password 85 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,920 Speaker 1: while you're in there. Making these changes. Make sure your 86 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: router does not create and enable a separate guest network. 87 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: Some routers do this as a courtesy or as an 88 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: extra feature. If your router does create a second guest network, 89 00:04:57,120 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 1: disable it or set a password on this second high 90 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,039 Speaker 1: spot as well. By enabling all three of these features 91 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,719 Speaker 1: and making sure you don't have a guest network, you 92 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,360 Speaker 1: make it virtually impossible for anyone outside of your household 93 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: to connect to your network. And now you've made it 94 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: impossible for strangers to download child porn through your network 95 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,840 Speaker 1: and for someone from the federal government to break down 96 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:24,600 Speaker 1: your door early in the morning. For more illness and 97 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com 98 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:29,600 Speaker 1: and don't forget to check out the brain stuff blog 99 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: on the house stuff works dot com home page. You 100 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter at 101 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: brain stuff HSW. The house Stuff Works I Find app 102 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,279 Speaker 1: has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.