Why is it that not everyone has a secure wireless network at home? Raise your hand if you are reading this right now and you don't....or don't know. Is it because you just can't be bothered to remember a password? Or have you tried all the typical options but are still having more trouble than success? Well it looks like now you can do much better as long as you know how to pick up a paint brush.
Image via warningtheday's Flickr
Being developed by Japanese researchers as a cheap security solution for corporate IT departments, this special paint uses embedded aluminum-iron oxide to keep the bouncing Wifi signals inside the building, or in our case, our house.
According to the researchers, the composition of the new material somehow distorts the bonds between iron and oxygen from their usual shape, which they believe explains the material's magnetic properties. They feel that further study, would lead to identifying new metal oxides that can absorb EM waves at even higher frequencies.
Put simply, the days of your next door neighbors piggybacking on your wi-fi signal are over, and you will never need tech support. Although you can't just run and pick up a gallon of this paint just yet, it appears that manufacturing it is actually really cheap. Hopefully this means it becomes an actual option for us everyday folks.
-via PC World
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Should assume it's probably going to block your cellphone signal too?
view bobl's profile
For it to work, you'd have to paint your ceiling, floors, doors, and windows in addition to your walls. And yeah, forget talking on your cell phone or listening to a radio inside the house.
Seems to me that taking a few minutes to set up security on your router or write down a password (on a post-it note stuck to your laptop, for example) is a heck of a lot easier than painting your whole house.
view Aimi's profile
Bad idea. Iron and aluminum oxide, in the right mixture, is also known as thermite. See also: Mythbusters and Brainiac.
And yeah, it'll probably kill your cell reception.
view kvh's profile
so no more tin foil hats !
-rmccurdy_com
view operat0r's profile
wow no one will steal my wi-fi...while I slowly poison myself
view EKSODYS's profile
or you could just live in a cave!
view cscamp20's profile