But I can tell you: a friend who was based in China for two years actually lived on someone else’s Wi-Fi for almost a year!

Regardless of whether you choose to lock down your AP, No wifi is perfectly secure — secure your hosts as if your network were open.

Then, be a pal and open your network – I do, and I’ve had neighbors buy me coffee when they were able to use my ‘net access to troubleshoot theirs!

There is a point that it’s not actually stealing, but when I find an open network I’m usually certain that its owner is ignorant, not generous.

And this makes me feel a little bit guilty when piggybacking (unless the WiFi is labeled “Please use this”, “My open WLAN” or something similar).

Back in Malaysia, our broadband is so slow you cant do much other than minor surfing and downloading small files when wifi. So it’s ok to let others use your unsecured wifi – that is, if they can connect it :P

At my mother’s house last fall, I was able to tell three people about their unsecured connections and how to lock them down. There were two others, and when we had Mom’s computer in pieces and I needed software, and I couldn’t contact the owners I knew about for permission, I hopped on one of the unsecured and downloaded a quick driver. I could have done the same thing driving a mile down the road to a public hotspot. But it was convenient, and if I couldn’t find them to ask permission, was that my fault? I would never abuse it, but for one quick thing, it was the way to go.

At the same time, I have my own wifi secured because I don’t expect others to be as considerate, but if I could password protect access to torrent ports etc I’d leave the rest open.

Like everything, there are plenty of bad apples out there, so be wary operating or using an unsecured network.

I’m sure they didn’t intend to leave it open, but I was respectful and didn’t do anything bandwidth heavy, I’m sure they didn’t even notice me there. If you’re usage is so little as to go unnoticed, then I see no harm.