Windows XP—still used by many—has long been promiscuous in its relationships. That is, it’s constantly seeking out new wireless partners to talk to. One result of this is that your wireless connection can simply disappear as XP thinks that another connection is more desirable and dumps its current relationship.

Another downside to the promiscuity is apparent when you’ve taken your laptop from its normal surroundings and it begins calling out for all the relationships it’s had in the past. “Linksys, are you there? home123, what about you? Anchor Free? Anyone?” A savvy hacker sitting a few tables away in your local Starbucks can sniff the network and see the plaintive calls of your computer; in a few seconds he can configure his computer to appear to yours as the router it’s searching for and in another fifteen seconds or so he’s passing your traffic to the hotspot that you thought you were using.

As you continue to surf the Internet and check your e-mail, you have no idea that this hacker is seeing everything you do, right down to the contents of your e-mail messages and your e-mail account passwords.

I’ve been warning my customers for some time to disable Wireless Zero Configuration, the Windows service that is the cause of this promiscuity. However, if you don’t want to take this step, Microsoft has released an update that will keep your computer from airing its sordid past. This update is not found in the usual Windows Updates, so you will need to download and apply this update manually.