Dial-up doesn't look so bad

This article suggests there is a $40 monthly fee for Wireless Internet service (at least twice as much as dial-up), and then what do you get? A slowdown when neighbors and others in the area hop on to your network -- what if others could access files?

Interesting article

Hey Neighbor, Stop Piggybacking on My Wireless - New York Times

"Piggybacking, makers of wireless routers say, is increasingly an issue for people who live in densely populated areas like New York City or Chicago, or for anyone clustered in apartment buildings in which Wi-Fi radio waves, with an average range of about 200 feet, can easily bleed through walls, floors and ceilings. Large hotels that offer the service have become bubbling brooks of free access that spill out into nearby homes and restaurants.

'Wi-Fi is in the air, and it is a very low curb, if you will, to step up and use it,' said Mike Wolf of ABI Research, a high-technology market research company in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

This is especially true, Mr. Wolf said, because so many users do not bother to secure their networks with passwords or encryption programs. The programs are usually shipped with customers' wireless routers, devices that plug into an Internet connection and make access to it wireless. Many home network owners admit that they are oblivious to piggybackers.

Some, like Marla Edwards, who think they have locked intruders out of their networks, learn otherwise. Ms. Edwards, a junior at Baruch College in New York, said her husband recently discovered that their home network was not secure after a visiting friend with a laptop easily hopped on.

'There's no gauge, no measuring device that says 48 people are using your access,' Ms. Edwards said."