Free Wifi Tips

Since I am sometimes using the City's or Rax's free wifi, Small Business Trends' Coffee House Survival Tip: Watch Out for Free WiFi caught my eye:

"In the past few months as I’ve traveled, I kept coming across these networks designated “free public Wi-Fi” to the point they seemed ubiquitous. But in a way the designation “free public WiFi” struck me as too obvious — like a come-on. Some small voice inside told me to avoid those WiFi networks. Good thing I did.

A recent article in Small Business Computing points out those networks are most likely being set up for nefarious purposes. They are what is known as “ad-hoc” networks and seldom are ad-hoc networks used to deliver Internet access. More likely they are there to spy on computers or infect them with malware. The article also has some good tips for how to recognize an ad-hoc network and avoid having your computer automatically connect to it."