For the love of God, please secure your wireless networks

Hear, hear! I suspect that almost any neighborhood has a number of unscecured home wireless networks. The sad part is that most people who set them up have no clue what they're exposing themselves to.

In my neighborhood, there are a few unsecured broadcast. I think, over in the states, that the newer more modern routers have some sort of built in protection to this. While I see the unsecured connections, when trying to connect I'm still confronted with it asking for a password. Unless, that the unsecured connection has bee set up that way. From my experience, they're all that way from what I've tried to connect to on these unsecured connections.

Although I know most of my neighbors and some quite well, I'll let them know that they are unsecured and broadcasting, if they like I can show them how to secure their connection. Most are astonished and had no idea they were exposed and possibly being piggy backed.

I just switched to Bell Aliant Fiber op, the wireless router/modem came preconfigured with the Wireless already secured. The SSID and password are printed on the bottom of the unit. You can also manually set it up the way you want. A step in the right direction anyway. Your average store bought router comes out of the box wide open and some people just don't know you have to secure the wireless or just don't know how to do it. It works so they leave it alone. There were one of two unsecured in my neighborhood at one point. I didn't see any the last time I fired up InSSIDer though.