(johnmac) -- Dana Spiegel, quoted in the article, spoke to my Monroe
> College Wireless Technology class, last Saturday. he is, to my
> understanding, the Executive Director of NYC Wireless (nycwireless.net
> -- an organization that I recommend to everyone.)
> From the New York Times --
>
formatting link
> Advocates of Wi-Fi in Cities Learn Art of Politics
> By GLENN FLEISHMAN
> SEATTLE, Jan. 18 - The idea of building citywide wireless networks
> from the community level was suspiciously simple back in 2000,
> although the plans sounded like the work of underground
> revolutionaries. "All of us were very idealistic, and all quite
> strongly opinionated," said Adam Shand, founder of Personal Telco,
> which had visions of such a network in Portland, Ore.
> There as elsewhere, it was seen as a three-step process.
Or a zero step process. What I discovered when I recently got my laptop is that there were a total of 15 wireless networks in my neighborhood, of which more than half were wide open.
For the first couple weeks I used one that was right across the street from me and then made a startling realization. I was getting no benefit out of my hardware firewall. So I plunked down $50 and got a WAP and now have 100% coverage through my entire house.
Does it broadcast it's SSID, sure it does.
But you must have the WPA key and the WAP must know your MAC address if you're going to be able to use it.