Wi Fi access point

We are setting up a wireless network in my house if like other people i the area to be able to use it, ive no idea how strong the signal would be though, thats irellevant. What iwant to know is what the dangers are? could they access my computer? or snoop on what im doing, i imagine encryption would make that much more difficult

It is possible for naughty people to leech off your access point to surf the net. The more computer savvy people could indeed gain access to your network and your files. The other day I was messing around and got into the wirless router, from there I was able to determine computer names and ip addresses and from there I could gain access to the machines if I so desired.

Encryption will help in this but they too can be hacked. WEP is pretty useless. WPA is better along with MAC filtering.

Just keep in mind that if someone wants in, they will get in.