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Why having Wi-Fi disabled can be beneficial for your security

Today most devices connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or network cable. Among these two, the most used today is undoubtedly Wi-Fi, because it facilitates mobility. An example could be a Windows laptop that you use in different parts of your home or on the go. However, sometimes for security reasons, it is convenient for us that this Windows computer does not connect to a Wi-Fi network. In this article we are going to explain why having Wi-Fi disabled can be beneficial for your security, because you could put your personal data at risk.

Reasons to disable Wi-Fi

In our devices we usually have many passwords saved, generally they are from the places where we connect via Wi-Fi most often. As for the reasons why we should have WiFi disabled, there could be two:

  1. By safety reasons since not all Wi-Fi networks that we connect to are secure. Simply because we have a wireless network stored with its corresponding password, we should not assume that it is secure. Often, among our Wi-Fi networks we have saved a public one such as that of a cafeteria, an airport or a store. These types of networks can be very dangerous for our security. The reason is because there may be a cybercriminal connected to it with the intention of stealing our data and may even have impersonated that network with a fake one. This is what is known as network spoofing.
  2. For energy saving: If we turn off the WiFi network when we don’t need it, we will save some energy. One of the most consuming parts of a router is the WiFi part. However, energy savings are minimal throughout the year. In the face of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops, deactivating WiFi means extending the useful life of the battery, depending on the device, we can save more or less battery, in addition, we must bear in mind that these devices are continuously sending and receiving internet data.

So a good practice could be to have WiFi disabled when we are not using it.

In terms of security, when we reach a public Wi-Fi it will not connect automatically and our data will not be at risk. To this we could also add a good routine in which immediately after turning on Wi-Fi, we connect to a VPN. In this way, our data will travel encrypted and will be safe both from cybercriminals and from the prying eyes of companies and other organizations. You may be interested in knowing the characteristics and speed of the new WiFi 7.

What to do to prevent connection to insecure networks

One thing is clear, having the Wi-Fi disabled is a good way to improve our security. A good routine that we could apply, for example, when leaving the house or the office would be to deactivate the Wi-Fi of both the laptop and our smartphone. Then we would only activate it again when we were going to connect to a secure Wi-Fi network such as our home or office. And in the hypothetical case that we connect to a public Wi-Fi, we should not forget to use a VPN.

On our Windows computers, in case we forget to have WiFi disabled, a good idea might be to prevent it from connecting automatically. To do this, we go to the Windows taskbar and click on the Wi-Fi icon. Then we will see the available Wi-Fi networks and in which we are connected we will click on the button Disconnect.

In case you don’t know, to the left of the button of the Airplane mode, if you click on the Wi-Fi button, it can be a good way to get Wi-Fi disabled. After having clicked on disconnect, the only thing left to do now is to deactivate the check box. automatically connect.

By doing this, it increases our security since the next time we are near that wireless network it will not connect automatically and it will not be a long time without us being unprotected without using a VPN. Finally, we could also prevent Windows from constantly searching for Wi-Fi. In managing known networks we could do it, it is another way apart from having Wi-Fi disabled.

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