Look Ma, no wires

I bought an 802.11g network wireless card earlier in the week. I’ve been interested in taking advantage of free WiFi at a coffee shop near my house and I assumed the connection would be faster than the dial-up service I get at home. I’ve been looking into it for a couple of months, but all of the stuff I was finding on the net seemed to be about setting up your own network, not logging on to someone else’s network.

I asked around and posted on my favorite local message board. Turns out all I needed was the card. It was really simple and it works just fine. But the best part of all is there is an open network that reaches my house. In other words, I get free high-speed Internet access at home.

I once read an article on Slate about the ethics of using an open network that isn’t necessarily “available” to others. The author’s conclusion was that if someone was savvy enough to have an open network they probably either wanted people to take advantage of it or don’t care if people take advantage of it.

I’m not savvy enough to figure out where the connection is coming from, so I don’t know if it’s my next-door neighbor, or if it’s the library one block away (which I would’ve thought was too far).

I’ve been told that I don’t have any additional security concerns since I‘ve got the standard McAfee protection. I guess I just have to make sure my files aren’t being shared. I haven’t figured out if my fly is open yet.