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Wireless broadband freedom
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59 per cent of broadband users have wireless
Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk
More than half of all UK broadband consumers now have a home wireless network, according to new research (16-07-08).
The Connected Life Consumer Trends Survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of router manufacturer LinkSys, showed that a massive 96 per cent of respondents had a laptop or PC with 87 per cent connecting to the internet via their home wifi network.
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"Wireless broadband is now a mass market technology - and not only for the tech savvy consumer"
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It also found that while 28 per cent had connected their printers, 20 per cent their games console and six per cent their digital music player, a quarter of respondents would like to take things even further and be able to access their files - such as music and photos - remotely.
However, 37 per cent cited a lack of technical knowledge as preventing them from doing so, a quarter claimed concerns over cost, and 24 per cent said that the anticipated set up time involved put them off setting up their own remotely accessible wireless network.
Chris Dobrec, linksys strategy and business development director, said: “The research shows that wireless networking is now a mass market technology - and not only for the tech savvy consumer.
“The consumer is by no means a computer network administrator - he or she is purely interested in the application of the network for tasks like accessing the internet wirelessly or printing wirelessly.”
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said that while wifi offered a huge range of uses - not to mention practicality - it was essential that consumers set up the appropriate security to protect their networks.
“Setting up a wireless network - and the necessary security measures is very easy,” he said. “But make sure that you use the latest encryption available on your devices, and always use a password that’s hard to guess, changing it regularly, so that hackers - or even just passers by - can’t piggyback your wireless network and access your files.
“Use our free Wireless Key Generator to create unique, hard-to-crack passwords,” he recommended.
Related article - Mobile broadband
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