Lions and Tigers and Bears …Oh My! Microsoft allows your contacts to access your networks!

Lillian read where Windows 10 is going to share her home network with all her contacts
I just read a news article about windows 10 having something called WIFI sense which allows any of your Outlook, Skype or Facebook contacts to use your home network. Could you look into this. I don’t have windows 10 yet but I think my home network should only be used by those I choose. Believe half of what you hear and one-quarter of what you read – especially during times of flux and change, like right now. I just read a news article about windows 10 having something called WIFI sense which allows any of your Outlook, Skype or Facebook contacts to use your home network. Could you look into this. I don’t have windows 10 yet but I think my home network should only be used by those I choose

Our answer
Hi Lillian. There is a lot of misinformation on the Web, and lot of information written with a spin – usually for sensationalistic purposes to attract traffic. If you’re in business on the Web, traffic is money.

Here’s a brief description of WiFi Sense:

Windows 10’s new Wi-Fi Sense feature takes the headache out of managing Wi-Fi connections on the run. With Wi-Fi Sense enabled, Windows 10 will automatically sign you into open Wi-Fi networks, as well as private networks that your Outlook.com, Skype, and Facebook contacts have logged into—so you won’t have to manually sign into the network when you visit your buddy’s house.

WiFi Sense allows your contacts to use your Home Network if they are in range. – which means in or near your house – which translated means guests. The way some articles are written you would think WiFi Sense allows one of your contacts from Australia to use and access home network in Ohio, USA. This is simply not true.

Yet there are folks out there literally outraged that Microsoft would do such a thing – allow all your contacts to access your home network. And they know better, but by creating panic and propagating misinformation in their eternal efforts to acquire readers and garner web traffic – they do increase readership and traffic as one outraged reader tells a friend and they tell a friend and so on.

WiFi Sense just makes it easier for your “contacts” who are within range of your Home Network (WiFi) to use your connection by allowing them to login with a encrypted version of your network password – so they never see your real password. But the key here, that many articles leave our or slough off is “within range”. We even saw one article referring to “cantennas” which are homemade WiFi antenna’s that allow access to WiFi networks over a half mile away.

How many of your contacts are friends? Probably most. And how many are you worried about building “cantennas” so they can sit a mile away from your house in their car using your WiFi network. And how many of us allow our friends to access our WiFi networks when they visit our homes? And if we do, most of us give our friends our WiFi network password so that they can access the Internet while visiting our homes. Hopefully, if we have someone in our homes, we trust them. We certainly don’t expect them to snoop around with “cantennas” using our WiFi.

And there’s a big difference between sharing a WiFi connection and sharing data.

If WiFi Sense is something that worries you, you can easily turn it off. Here’s how:

In Windows 10, click Start then click on Settings. Choose Network and Internet, Wi-Fi, Manage Wi-Fi settings. If you are concerned about privacy you’ll disable every option there. You can also tell Windows 10 to forget any Wi-Fi networks you’ve signed into in the past (see below):

Over the next 8 to 12 months, they’ll be a lot of misinformation and/or negative spin about Windows 10, just as there was right after the launch of Microsoft’s most beloved operating system, Windows XP. We can remember writing about how much we loved Windows XP, but there were a lot of others pointing out its flaws. And there was an army of Windows 98 users who wrote us to say they’d never upgrade to Windows XP. So we’ve been through this before. Spinning things to be better or worse than they really are is typical whenever something new and different comes along.

Windows 10 does have flaws, but so does every other operating system including Apple, Linux, Android and Chrome. We think the features, user friendliness and familiar feel of Windows 10 make it the best Windows since Windows XP. But we hardly expect everyone is going to agree with us.

OFFER EXTENDED AGAIN!

It may be several weeks before everyone will have a chance to get the Windows 10 upgrade – even those who’ve reserved it may have to wait a week or two or even a month or more. So we have extended this offer once again. If you’re considering upgrading to Windows 10, you will definitely want to take advantage of this offer. Our Get Ready For Windows 10 offer includes a pre-check to make sure your computer will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 without any problems. Plus, we’ll come back and check your computer after you’ve upgraded. Don’t forget: Once the Windows 10 upgrade installer has downloaded, you get to choose the date and time you want to do the actual upgrade – and you do have until July 29, 2016 to do it and still get it free. Great deal!. So order your pre-checkup & post checkup now and make sure your computer is ready for Windows 10.