You shouldn't ever have a public wireless network of your own, and you should never connect to other people's public wireless networks. If you're running/connected to an encrypted network, you're good, and setting that up isn't hard at all.
You shouldn't ever have a public wireless network of your own, and you should never connect to other people's public wireless networks. If you're running/connected to an encrypted network, you're good, and setting that up isn't hard at all.
Why not? It's convenient being on the road and having Internet. I have my own wireless unlocked for the convenience of others. Also, it gives me plausible deniability in case I do something illegal.
Also, most websites with sensitive information are SSL encrypted anyway so even on an open connection, your information isnt at a huge risk. Regardless, the odds of anyone actually sitting there and actively reading all my packets are slim to none.
If someone does something illegal using your wireless internet, you're responsible for it. You can't just leave your network open to have an excuse for anything illegal done on your connection.
Also, it's been reported numerous times that connecting to a wireless network that isn't secure is very dangerous. I was reading recently about some hackers convention in Las Vegas where a guy was demonstrating what could be done. He stole some dude's Gmail account right there, and the guy whose e-mail account was stolen was in the audience on the public wireless network they had there.
I connect to other people's networks all the time. It's not my fault if they don't secure them. Although, I'm running out of networks. Wish I was more computer-savvy to set up my own.