I’m not really sure what these guys are trying to accomplish. Those of us who want wireless network security already use it. Those who don’t use it generally either don’t care or truly don’t want it.

There are a pair of high-rise apartment buildings across the street from one of the stores that my wife shops at. I often take my computer and sit in the car while she shops, working on my programming. My laptop always displays a number of wireless networks when I start it up there, showing the protected status and asking if I want to connect to one (I don’t need to, all my work and reference material is already on my system). For a long time, almost none of them were protected, but all of a sudden a couple years ago, all of them were. I could only speculate why, but it occurred to me that it could be caused by just one bad apple sucking large amounts of bandwidth from any open connection he could find.

I probably wouldn’t turn on wireless security myself, except that letting someone use my wireless network would also let them past my firewall, which isn’t happening. If somebody needs a wireless connection that badly, there’s a library next door and several restaurants within a block or two that will gladly provide it for free.