helped me with it when we set up the network.”
Joel went even paler than usual. “Brian, how long have you had this wireless network?”
The panic in his voice scared me.
“Not long, just about a month,” Brian said slowly. “We put it in just before we went to Hawaii.”
Joel shook his head. “With the wireless access wide open, anyone can see all your machines from behind the firewall. Damn it, you could have all sorts of crap on there.”
I exchanged a look with Brian: this was all news to both of us.
“Dude, you need to encrypt your wireless network, and install a firewall and some spy-detecting software on each machine.”
Brian looked at me, one eyebrow raised so high it was lost under his hair. He needed that haircut soon. Maybe I was trying to ignore the note of anxiousness in Joel’s voice.
“Why?” Brian said. “You really don’t need encryption if you’re as far out in the country as we—”
“No, man, that’s not true. Anyone could get on your network from outside the house. And the firewall in the router is wimpy-assed; you should have them on each of your machines as well.” Joel explained in detail what was wrong as he worked. “I didn’t find anything too suspicious, but I think you’ll be a lot safer from viruses and stuff, at the very least.”
Brian fancies himself the technologically literate one in the family, and he was particularly proud of having installed the new network. Although Joel had done a good job of explaining without pointing fingers, I could tell my husband was far from happy. But I had to hand it to him, he didn’t make excuses to Joel and he didn’t try to argue the point with someone who actually worked in the field. Taking even a gentle rebuke from Joel was hard, but Brian did it.
“Hang on a second.” Joel pulled out his laptop notebook and spent a little time with it. “I’ve got some software on here that helps find open access points. You know about wardriving, right?”
Brian said, “I’ve heard of it.”
“No clue,” I said.
Joel blew out his cheeks in frustration, then turned his machine so we could see the screen. I didn’t see anything I recognized; it was all just random numbers and letters, to me.
“Look, right there? That’s you. That’s your wireless router shouting, “look at me, I’m a wireless access point at the Funny Farm!”
“That sounds bad,” Brian said.
My stomach felt like it was ready to be rid of the chili, and I concentrated on taking deep breaths.
“It is bad. It means people could have been using your machine to look at your files, your email, use your computer to transmit files…”
“Can we fix it?” I could feel sweat running down my back, something that had nothing to do with the heat in my office.
“Yep, I’ll set the encryption on the wireless network right now, but then we’d better do some shopping.”
I said nothing, just followed him out of the house and into his Beemer. It was parking us in, and besides, Brian’s truck was too tight a fit for all of us. My car was was full of field gear, and a pile of books I’d meant to lend to Raylene Reynolds for her kids. To me, the BMW didn’t match Joel’s personality—unless you chalked it up to gadgetry and you thought of the ways in which geeks compete.
Twenty minutes later, we were at the nearest computer megastore, and ten minutes after that, Brian was paying out a shocking amount of money for things I’d never heard of or believed I needed. He seemed to vaguely get what Joel was talking about while he threw things into our cart, but I still had no idea.
Joel saw me flinch when I saw the total. “Trust me. It’s all necessary.”
“You told us you weren’t an expert on security!”
He shook his head. “This is just basic stuff. I know you guys love Kam and all, but next time you’re doing something like this? Give me a call. I don’t mind, I don’t want anyone getting exposed to the creeps out there.”
Brian didn’t say anything, but he colored, and nodded. I could tell that he felt guilty, or at least remiss, as the network had been his idea. “Sure. Definitely.”
When we got back to the Funny Farm, Joel installed the new software and hardware, and then we started installing the cameras he brought outside. We reassured him that the barn had been padlocked, and the access to