New to Airport...worried about security.

Ok...here's the deal.

I moved to a new apartment complex a couple weeks ago and for some reason my Airport Icon (top right on the menu bar) and my bluetooth were switched on when I started my computer one morning.

I pulled open the Airport drop menu and saw several usernames and immediately got worried. So I shut Airport off, and shut bluetooth off as well.

I went into Apple help and found my Airport shared folder (nothing was in there) and locked it. I also put a FileVault on my computer.

My question is this....would anyone around my apartment complex be able to see anything else on my computer the few moments or hours my Airport was turned on?....or would they just see my shared folder (which had nothing in it)?

The reason I'm asking this question is because I had a important financial document on my desktop and I absolutely wanted NO ONE to see it. They could have reached anything on my desktop, correct?

Thanks.

In the few moments it was connected, a person who had a remote clue of what he/she was doing would only be able to get to your Shared folder. However, the chances of even that happening are so remote that you have nothing to worry about. Plus, OS X has some really good built in security, so you'd need a lot more than just a few minutes for someone to break into your system.

Thank you SO MUCH. I'm serious. I lost sleep last night because of this...

What do you mean saw several usernames in the drop down menu? If you click on the airport icon in the menu bar...the only things that drop down are the available wireless networks you could join...

Aubie16 said:

What do you mean saw several usernames in the drop down menu? If you click on the airport icon in the menu bar...the only things that drop down are the available wireless networks you could join...

Click to expand...

Often people change their SSID to a name which would look like a username. That is what he saw. Some leave it default like say Linksys or Netgear. I change all of mine.

dtravis7 said:

Often people change their SSID to a name which would look like a username. That is what he saw. Some leave it default like say Linksys or Netgear. I change all of mine.

Click to expand...

Yeah I understand that...I changed mine too. I was just making sure he knew that didn't mean people were trying to connect to his computer.

He probably knew that but I couldn't tell from the way he was describing the story.

Do this:

System Prefs > Sharing

If none of the boxes are checked, no one is getting in.