How do I prevent my PC from locking onto nearby wireless networks?

[Frank]

How do I prevent my PC from locking onto nearby wireless networks
(that don't come from my own wireless router)? I am using XP Home
Edition on a laptop.

--
I use a wireless router (Dlink) for my DSL connection. I have all of
the security in place to block other users from accessing my PC
(firewall, encryption, passwords, non-broadcast of ID, etc).

The problem I have is that every so often my PC locks onto my
neighbor's wireless signal. I can manually re-select my own signal
and delete the other, but this is a pain. Also, I sometimes use my PC
to record webcasts when I am not at home, so I would not be able to
correct this problem.

I thought there was some setting to only allow a designated wireless
network to be detected, but I can't find how to do it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Frank

 

[Chuck]

How do I prevent my PC from locking onto nearby wireless networks
(that don't come from my own wireless router)? I am using XP Home
Edition on a laptop.

The problem I have is that every so often my PC locks onto my
neighbor's wireless signal. I can manually re-select my own signal
and delete the other, but this is a pain. Also, I sometimes use my PC
to record webcasts when I am not at home, so I would not be able to
correct this problem.

I thought there was some setting to only allow a designated wireless
network to be detected, but I can't find how to do it.

Frank,

Non-broadcast of SSID provides only a minimal amount of protection, and is part
of your problem.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=811427

Is your neighbor's network in your preferred list? If not, disable
"Automatically connect to non-preferred networks".
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg1102.mspx

And Frank, please don't contribute to the spread of email address mining
viruses. Learn to munge your email address properly, to keep yourself a bit
safer when posting to open forums. Protect yourself and the rest of the
internet - never post your address unmunged.
http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[robert]

check the in properties or the connection >>advance, move your access point
higher in the Preferred list.