Q Both a neighbour and I have wireless networks. It appears that his network is taking mine over. I have identified that there is one at his address by wandering around with a notebook.

How can I exclude his network appearing on my list of networks and more importantly block him from mine. My own wireless network is often blocked, but when he goes out it starts working.
Bill Billing

A The interference you describe suggests that you are both using the same name for the wireless networks. This can be solved by changing the name of the network. All routers are set up slightly differently but this will be in the wireless settings. The network name is sometimes referred to as the SSID. Change this to something that is easy to remember but does not identify your house.

It is illegal under the Computer Misuse Act to access a network (whether wired or wireless) without permission. There are several things you can do to block unauthorised users from the network, and you should explore these options before going to the police.

All these options should be accessible from the web interface of the router. Refer to the instructions for the address to enter into Internet Explorer. It will look something like this: http://192.168.1.1. Enter the password (if required) to access all the settings. It may be possible to leave the password field blank and proceed if you have not previously set one.

The first thing to do is secure your network is to set up encryption. This prevents access without a password and comes in two varieties: Wpa and Wep. The first is the most recent version and offers the best security, but it may not work with some older hardware. This step is often ignored in the setup guides for wireless routers. It will be under the Wireless networks settings. Once a WPA or Wep password has been added, you will need to enter it on all the computers that connect to the wireless network.

The other way to control who uses the network is to set up MAC (media access control) address filtering. Not to be confused with the broadband MAC (migration authorisation code), a MAC address is a code unique to each piece of network hardware. It is made up of numbers and the letters A-F, for example 0014D1C1591E.

The code can be found on the underside of most USB and PC Card wireless adapters. If you cannot find it, left-click on the Start button and then on Run. Type cmd and press Enter. Type ipconfig /all and press Enter again. This will list all the information about the network adapters in the computer. Look for the entry for the wireless adapter and write down the text under Physical Address. Most routers will allow you to either allow or block specified MAC addresses.