>

As someone in the business of serving clients in the networking
business, I can tell you that while there may be people who don't know
how to secure a network they have deployed, there is probably no one
who has deployed an open network and also is concerned about stolen
bandwidth. The concern is over data security, but not stolen bandwidth.

Everyone I  have ever known--including myself--who set up a wireless
router knows that someone could park nearby and get some free
bandwidth. But how would I even know it was happening? There are so
many other bandwidth hogs like poorly-optimized websites, relatives
sending snapshots and spammers sending unwanted email that nobody
really worries about an occasional leak to the outside world.

I'm not weighing in on wether it's legal or ethical, just saying that
the people who don't bother to secure their networks don't care. I
doubt that there is anyone who cares and hasn't done anything about it.

Jim

> There's wireless access points that are deliberately open to all.
> That's
> both legal and morally okay.
>
> Then there are access points that are open because the owner isn't
> knowledgable enough to close them.  Using those is legally and morally
> questionable, IMHO.
>