Why does the mouse on one computer move the pointer on another?

I had never considered this but I am also not paranoid nor have a need to be.

I have been glancing at wireless keyboards and mice for a girlfriend's laptop and have not noticed encryption being specified. I will look at that more closely in the future.

I can't really see the point of wireless, wired peripherals are cheaper, do not require batteries and, in some cases, are faster. You already have at least some wires, what's wrong with a few more?

Not to minimize the seriousness of open broadcasts of signals, you are missing out on a wonderful practicial joke.
We set up a wireless mouse to a boss's PC. as he was trying to do some work, the joker would do simple moves with the mouse: change windows, right click, etc.
It was driving the boss wild and he called in tech support who found nothing, since the culprit mouse was by then in a drwaer.

I use a wireless mouse. It requires not only the mouse (transmitter) but also a receiver plugged into the computer's USB port. I also have a second computer 6 feet away with a wireless card & on the same home network, with sharing enabled. There is no interference.

There are all kinds of radio frequencies around your home, but it takes a proper receiver to decode them and make them useful for a specific function. I suspect this is the case here; someone has set it up as a practical joke.

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE COMPUTERS ARE ON A SHARED NETWORK?

I had this in a hotel reception where I look after the computers and it simply turned out to be that one PC was using the same frequency as the wireless mouse receiver on the other PC. Both were the same brand and model. The receptionist was going crazy when I was using the mouse on one machine nearby and it was moving the mouse on both! I simply reset the mouse receiver and mouse using the reset buttons which created a new frequency. The problem didn't return.

Great topic, I will make sure I stay away from wireless peripherals.

That's an extreme reaction. I love wireless peripherals. Just make sure to understand the risks depending on the environment you happen to be in. In most cases there's no issue.

12-Sep-2009

I have seen variations on this problem over the years, and even experienced it myself at a time before wireless peripherals - sometimes the mouse cursor would simply travel in a straight line across the desktop (often at an angle towards the top left) until i 'waggled' the mouse to regain control.
Personally, I don't like wireless peripherals.
1: you have to maintain the batteries (or charge, depending on what it is).
2: I'm a gamer. My peripherals often look like frankenstein's monster compared to other people's (my R.A.T.7 mouse is a case in point). Gaming peripherals usually have much higher 'needs' than standard ones.

Hello Leo,

I thank you for the information. Excellent is your focus on privacy. In regards to this situation, I agree with you that the upmost concern is privacy.