People Tapping Into Your Home Wifi? Paint Your House! - 3,743 Views, 4 Comments
|
Previous Article « Microsoft, Texas AG, Take Down Two of World’s Top Spammers
Read Next Article » Is Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware Really a Bootlegged Windows “Gotcha!”?
Are you worried about your neighbors tapping in to and using your home wireless computer network? Or, worse, about wardrivers hijacking your wifi and using it to send a run of spam? Well, a Sunnyvale, California company has a suggestion for you: paint your house. “But,” you whine, “my problem is home computer network security, not how Martha Stewart my house looks!” “Exactly” we say. “Huh?” says you. Yes, Force Field Wireless wants you to paint your house. But not with just any old paint, oh no. You see, Force Field Wireless has developed a special paint, which, when applied to your walls, they claim, will keep your wifi well-behaved and where it belongs - in your house - and those pesky sniffers where they belong: on the outside unable to look in. They do it with metal, you see - no, not tinfoil hats - but copper and aluminum fibers, mixed in to the paint. This, they say, creates a Faraday cage effect, although they recommend several coats of the paint, known as DefendAir, to acheive the paint’s full blocking potential. According to their website, one coat “has the shielding range of 100MHz - 2.6GHz,” and “with just a few coats DefendAir has a shielding range up to 5GHz.” Presumably this would work to stop people from Bluejacking your Bluetooth-enabled devices, and reading your RFIDs. And if you don’t like their selection of colours (basically one - primer gray) they also sell copper and aluminum grains which you can mix into a can of paint of your choosing. Talk about being painted into a corner!
Follow Anne on Twitter
People Tapping Into Your Home Wifi? Paint Your House!
Twitter Explained in Plain English
Previous Article « Microsoft, Texas AG, Take Down Two of World’s Top Spammers
Read Next Article » Is Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware Really a Bootlegged Windows “Gotcha!”?
Read more:
» Greedy Airport Authority Threatens Airline for Offering Free Wifi
» WarDrive-Proof Your Windows with GlassLock SpyGuard Window Film!
» Enormous Database of Wifi Routers - Including Yours! - Revealed by AOL and Skyhook Announcement
» Has Your Wifi Access Point Been Mapped by a Wardriver?
For additional similar stories check out our archives on Bluetooth, RFID, Reviews, Security, Wireless Wifi
NOTE: We never, ever, ever will recommend any product or service on this site that we have not regularly used ourselves and do not wholeheartedly believe in. That said, in some cases after being very pleased with a product or service, we may enter into a relationship with the provider of that product or service such that if someone purchases that product or service based on our recommendation, we may get a small payment. Such payments go towards the upkeep of the Internet Patrol.
People Tapping Into Your Home Wifi? Paint Your House!
Are you worried about your neighbors tapping in to and using your home wireless computer network? Or, worse, about wardrivers hijacking your wifi and using it to send a run of spam? Well, a Sunnyvale, Calfornia company has a suggestion…
Trackback by Lockergnome's Net Patrol — 1/14/2005 @ 12:57 am
The paint idea sounds feasible but what about a system like the invisible dog fence. Set up an electronic shielding system(dog fence) that covers the immediate property but does not interfere with adjacent structures. Could be configured or attuned to the specific frequencies used by the homeowners wifi via web key encryption, kind of like a firewall.
Comment by Tiquenah Powerhouse — 6/8/2005 @ 8:57 pm
“A few coats.” Is this like shampoo insructing you to rinse and repeat?
I’m a bit dubious about the science of this. And if you painted your garage door, would the remote still work?
Comment by Christopher W. — 1/11/2006 @ 12:23 pm
If you have a brick house your out of luck i guess.
Comment by David Langdon — 1/11/2006 @ 4:23 pm