I've just remembered one more thing to consider.

  Assuming you're in the United States, there's a law from a few years
back called CALEA, the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act,
which basically require telephone company networks to be "wiretap ready"
so that if the FBI came knocking with a warrant to listen in on
somebody's conversations, the phone company had to be able to quickly
comply.

  Fast forward a decade or so, and about two years ago the FCC noticed
the growth in VOIP (Voce Over Internet Protocol) traffic.  And they
issued a ruling that all providers of "public Internet access" must
comply with CALEA.  They made exceptions for libraries and restaurants,
but not for colleges and universities....
  So basically, if you don't take steps to keep your wifi private (such
as requiring a password), it is at least theoretically possible that you
could be fined for not being prepared to provide access to any voice
traffic going over it.  (The routers I have seen that will sort out VOIP
from data traffic in order to implement CALEA compliance retail for
about $35K and up, but of course can handle much more traffic than a
home connection needs.
  Of course, I haven't heard that anyone actually HAS been fined, and
the odds are probably pretty low.  But anyone that suggests that you
should, for the common good, run your wifi wide open for anyone to use
(yes, I've heard people, even people I seriously respect, take this
position) is effectively urging civil disobedience -- they should at
least also tell you that they are suggesting that you break the law, and
explain why the think it is a bad law that should be broken, and let you
make your own (*informed*) decision.

  So the advice in this thread about how to deter "leeching" ought to be
considered even by those who don't think it's a problem...

David Gillett
CISSP CCNP


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