I am pleased with myself.

I'm not a guy who's big on technicalities but when threatened head-on I am left with no choice but to defend myself.

So a few days ago I realized that I could no longer connect wirelessly to my usual connection from my very own router.

I tried many ways to remedy the situation, basically all amateurish like unplugging and replugging cables, turning off and on the router and modem, uninstalling and reinstalling my wireless adapter, but all to no avail.

So I did the unthinkable and from a list of wireless network available from my neighbourhood, I 'illegally' connected to a network called 'DeeKaye' which seemed to have at least a 97% signal strength all the time just so I could continue using the Net.

My sister however, is adamant that we shouldn't be tapping to other people's network like this. I couldn't agree more but I just couldn't be bothered to do anything about it.

Besides, I had an inkling feeling that 'DeeKaye' was ours anyway. I suspected someone had changed the name from our usual name because whenever I switched my router off, my wireless network would die too.

I've never seen 'DeeKaye' before on the list of wireless networks and the signal being extremely strong, it could only mean that it was coming from at most one door away from my flat from whichever side.

Now THAT is unbelievable considering the fact that on my right, I have a drunk-as-a-skunk neighbour and on my left are a couple of senior citizens. I cannot accept the fact that they have embraced the age of the Internet overnight and installed a broadband connection too.

My sister offered to deal with it. So great, I let her. Haha, maybe I shouldn't coz she disabled my wireless adapter and now it's rendered useless. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. Everytime I tried to reinstall it, my laptop would get the evil blue screen and automatically shutdown.

And the stupid Starhub guy she spoke to on the phone to guide her through the process convinced her that 'DeeKaye' wasn't ours against all indication pointing the other way.

At this stage, it could mean two things: Either our router was kaput like she believed it was OR that it was still alive and kicking but someone's hijacked it, like what I believe it was.

I was determined to prove me right.

Took all of one and a half hours before I left for work yesterday but it was worth it coz I learned how to protect my wireless network AND not to take for granted of the fact that others are going to treat you with the same respect you extend to them (Yes I'm talking to YOU DeeKaye!).

With a lot of assistance from another Starhub guy on the phone, I managed to remedy the situation wholly as well as protect our wireless connection from future attacks.

Firstly, on my sister's PC, I tried to detect all the wireless networks from her wireless adapter. Hers is stronger than mine and can probably detect networks from as far as Uranus and I discovered there was another called 'deekaye' (not to be confused with DeeKaye') with only 20% signal strength.

My suspicion is stronger now. There is a guy called DeeKaye somewhere with his own network and maybe he changed our unprotected network to prove something.

I went to the Linksys website to confirm, chop, guarantee with lifetime warranty that our Linksys router was indeed ours. Yeap it was. Through this, I also discovered that the name had indeed been changed to 'DeeKaye' from the usual.

I changed it back but this time to my email address so DeeKaye or any other ungracious suckers would have to deal with me next time they're thinking about connecting to my wireless which now that it's crossed my mind, will never happen again.

Simply because I have now configured my router such that only my sister's computer and mine can connect to OUR wireless network. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.

Now maybe I should have done it right from the beginning but on a personal level, I felt, why not share? Sure someone's riding on my wireless network while I pay the bill for them but hey, I'm all for that. I'm not rich but I can afford it and it doesn't cost me anything extra anyway.

But when you start hijacking my wireless network and claiming it as your own, that gets under my skin and you deserve what's coming at ya.