Does your laptop's Wi-Fi make it more vulnerable to thieves

Instead, they should:

* Keep their laptop set to go to sleep on lid closure.

* Make sure they uncheck the Internet Connection Sharing box in Windows.

* They should be careful about fiddling with the Power Manager features in their laptop. For instance, the ThinkVantage software in the latest Lenovo ThinkPads lets users turn on a feature called InstantResume, which allows them keep the Wi-Fi radio on for up to 99 minutes after going to sleep. ThinkPad users can see if they have InstantResume on by glancing at the top of their ThinkPad -- if the "moon" suspend indicator light is not lit up, the Wi-Fi is still on.

Eric Lai covers Windows and Linux, desktop applications, databases and business intelligence for Computerworld. Follow Eric on Twitter at Twitter @ericylai or subscribe to Eric's RSS feed Lai RSS. His e-mail address is elai@computerworld.com.