November 14th, 2016

What does the shield over a WiFi network mean?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Windows 10 has a new icon in the networking flyout:

Fred’s WiFi
Open

It’s a WiFi network with a shield and an exclamation point. What does this mean?

It means that the network is not secure.

What does it mean for the network not to be secure?

It’s the same as “Open”. The network does not require a password and consequently does not use encryption. Anybody can snoop on your network activity unless you take your own encryption measures (such as using https).

Category
Old New Thing
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Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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