Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 16: Going Wireless Away from Home
Of the myriad reasons that someone (or some company or organization) may
open up a hot spot location, the most common we’ve seen include
� In a spirit of community-mindedness: Many hot spot operators strongly
believe in the concept of a connected Internet community, and they
want to do their part by providing a hop-on point for friends, neighbors,
and even passers-by to get online. For an example of this, check out
a service provider called Fon (www.fon.com/en/), which has built a
worldwide network of hot spots around this principle.
� As a municipal amenity: Not only individuals want to create a connected
community. Many towns, cities, and villages have begun exploring
the possibility of building municipality-wide Wi-Fi networks. A cost
is associated with this concept, of course, but they see this cost as being
less than the benefit the community will receive. For example, many
towns are looking at an openly accessible downtown Wi-Fi network as a
way to attract business (and businesspeople) to downtown areas that
have suffered because of businesses moving to the suburbs.
� As a way to attract customers: Many cafes and other public gathering
spots have installed free-to-use hot spots as a means of getting customers
to come in the door and to stay longer. These businesses don’t
charge for the hot spot usage, but they figure you will buy more double
espressos if you can sit in a comfy chair and surf the Web while you’re
drinking your coffee — in many cases, the business provides you with
free access after you buy something.
� As a business in and of itself: Most of the larger hot spot providers have
made public wireless LAN access their core business. They see that hot
spot access is a great tool for traveling businesspeople, mobile workers
(such as sales folks and field techs), and the like. They’ve built their
businesses based on the assumption that these people (or their companies)
will pay for Wi-Fi access mainly because of the benefits that a
broadband connection offers them compared with the dial-up modem
connections they’ve been traditionally forced to use while on the road.
Another group of hot spot operators exists that we like to call the unwilling
(or unwitting!) hot spot operators. These are often regular Joes who have
built wireless home networks but haven’t activated any of the security measures
we discuss in Chapter 9. Their access points have been left wide open,
and their neighbors (or people sitting on the park bench across the street)
are taking advantage of this open access point to do some free Web surfing.
Businesses, too, fall in this category: You would be shocked at how many
businesses have unsecured access points — in many cases their IT people
don’t even know about it. It’s all too common for a department to install its
own access point (a rogue access point) without telling the IT staff that
they’ve done so.
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