[mrss]

I was traveling on vacation/holiday with my Vista laptop and using wifi at hotels and cafes for the first time. Occasionally, I saw unsecured network sites named "Free Public WiFi: and "hpsetup". The first time this happened. I was in a motel off by itself in the Canada's Yukon province, miles from anywhere. Couldn't be any other routers around and being paranoid, I wondered if there was a hacker down the hall. I used the hotel's wifi, by the way.

So I came home and found out with a search that this is probably from other travelers with laptops inadvertently set to broadcast SSID's for ad hoc networks, as explained here.. Anyone else seen this?

Another time. I checked into a hotel that didn't advertise public WiFi but in the room, my laptop found a network bearing its name. I used it to login and check my email. Later, I spoke to the clerk why they didn't advertise it like their competitors. He said they didn't have wireless, only a wired PC in the lobby. Sigh. I figured the other site was bogus, so used the hotel's wired PC to change my email passwords. Speaking of wired PC's for the public, be careful. My daughter used one for her email and it stored her web access page and login info. I used IE7's tools to erase browsing history and cookies. Hope that was enough.

I found I could get wireless at various coffee shops,some visitor sites, and many hotels, except for one lodge that didn't have TV, phone, or air conditioning either. It did offer location (next place 100 miles away) and great views of bison standing outside the window.

[TechOutsider]

Before you use public wi-fi, verifiy the SSID, the network name, with the provider. Just ask the guy behind the counter. Then make sure the network you jump on has the same SSID.