With the help of readers at this forum, I finally managed to encrypt my basic router-wireless adapter setup to WEP and disable the SSID. When surfing the web, every few minutes, my TrendMicro antivirus firewall would flash a warning that a certain router from the neighborhood is connecting to my network. 1. As my SSID broadcast is already disabled, how could anyone connect to my network? 2. The message describes the "intruder" as a router, which is surprising to me. I always thought the router just transmits the signals whereas the wireless adapter is the devise that actively seeks out those signals. So, how could a router try to connect to my network? 3. As I have already encrypted to WEP, should I just ignore this flash message as someone just attempting, but failed, to connect to my network? The message provides 2 responses from me: click either as Trusted, or Not Trusted. 4. I have repeatedly responded by clicking Not Trusted, and why does this message persistently appear? Can someone help me understand the implication of this constant message. Thanks in advance.

WEP is far from secure. The latest hacker tools can crack a 128-bit WEP key in minutes. WPA is a far better encryption technology. If you have WPA in your router, use it instead. A word about routers. Routers are simply computers. They still have interfaces just like a computer does, with IP addresses, mac addresses, the whole 9 yards. They simply route traffic. For example, if you set your Windows box up for Internet Connection Sharing, guess what? Your XP machine is, you guessed it, a router! I would like to know how Trend determines something is a router. "...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"

Thanks for your reply. The TrendMicro 2005 that I use has lots of networking protection features, in fact sometimes over-zealous, constantly popping up messages ever so often. It would detect my other laptop which has a name. But this neighboring intruder has no computer name and the device type is stated as "router" I would click this warning as "Not Trusted" but ten minutes later this same warning pops up again. So, I'm not sure about the usefulness of disabling broadcast of the SSID. The router does have WPA feature but my Thinkpad T23 has a built-in wireless pci card which has only WEP (perhaps back in 2002 when this laptop was manufactured WPA was not invented yet). I am seeking for an updated pci card for this laptop that also has WPA, but it is a daunting search. Any lead would be appreciated.

Change the name of your SSID and see if that helps. If you left it at the factory default disableing it dose not help a lot.