I wrote an entry a couple weeks ago about how to tether your laptop to the G1 and Android to get Internet access. The method I described has you connect to the G1 over WiFi and uses an app called GWiFi. What I didn’t mention is that this also turns your G1 into a wireless hotspot. Now any Tom, Dick and Mary can connect and use your 3G link for Internet access. I looked at other tethering apps and they had the same security options…none.
It’s not the end of the world if the app doesn’t provide any type of wireless encryption or MAC filtering. For example, in lieu of those esential security features, you can protect the WiFi network by monitoring who connects by looking at the status screen of the GWiFi app. If you see another computer connect, you can immediately disconnect them. Not the best security mechanism as you can see.
To find out if other G1 users feel wireless security is important, I put together a quick question and sent it out via Twitter. I explicilty named WPA and MAC filtering as two security options since those were the most well known. My guess is that most people will be happy with just being able to tether and securing that connection is of lesser importance. I’ll report back with the results in a future blog entry.
Photo Credit: CarbonNYC
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