why the hell do laptops have a wireless switch?

[gameas]

well, i think of it as: of the wireless is off, there's virtually no way to hack into someone's computer remotely through there wireless. ^^

[BreakTheChains]

The switch is just there to be more convenient. It's not there for security or any other reason other than convenience and turning the wireless card off. Nobody feels like writing software that turns off the card from your OS so they just hardwire a switch for it. Convenience.

[ZERO_ice]

Um, actually the switch is there so you save power, wireless eats up a lot of electricity. As for cracking into a laptop, it’s impossible to crack into a laptop with wireless on if it isn’t connected anywhere. The same goes for mobile phones with Bluetooth. You just cant get past the net card. The signal is completely ignored unless you allow it to connect. Just like plugging a network cable into you’re PC but not configuring the network you just cant connect to the internet because the computer won’t let you, the PC acknowledges the connection but doesn’t do anything about it. The same goes for wireless the PC will ask you to accept or block the connection. The computer can be crack in if it’s connected to a wireless network but the same goes for a wired connection although it’s much harder sneaking in a cable. The PC isn’t the problem the router is. But watch out for free access internet where anyone can connect to the wireless router if you connect to there you can be hacked. Usually routers nowadays use pretty good protection, not unbreakable mind you, but pretty good, usually by using a certificate (a file with the necessary into to get accepted by a router). If someone gets a certificate he has free access to a certain network like schools, cafes …