People every day are at Starbucks and Borders tapping away at their laptops. For people that work from home and students, it's often a relief to get out of the house and into a public space to do some work. But you need to be a little careful about what kind of online work you do in a public place. It is equally important to protect your wireless network at home.

In public:
DO - check your email as long as you don't send any identifying details back and forth.
DON'T - pay your bills or place orders with your credit card.
You open yourself up to hackers at a public Wi-Fi hotspot. Hackers can easily have access to your data in a wireless environment.
At home:
Password protect your wireless network with a WPA or WPA2 password. Do not use a WEP password. It is too easy to hack. Unfortunately, Verizon FIOS routers come with a WEP password as the default. The passcode is written on the bottom of the router so the customer won't forget it. A WEP password is an unsafe type of password. If you are able, you should change the default WEP password to a WPA type on a FIOS router. If you purchase and install your own router, you have a choice of password type. Choose WPA2.