Just got off the phone with mom and dad, who have just bought their first post-retirement home in Ottawa. Mom happened to mention she was connected to the Internet via a free wireless Internet service that was apparently available to all Ottawa residents. My envy quickly turned to skepticism, however, when she mentioned the SSID (network name) of the service she was connecting to was "netgear2".

NETGEAR is of course a well-known manufacturer of network hardware, including wireless routers. I suspect that neighbours of my parents' simply have their home network (and associated Internet connection) sitting wide open without any security. If that's their informed choice, then great. If not, well I hope it's an old router, because there's no reason current wireless networking hardware should allow inexperienced users to expose their networks like this.

Mom, if you wanted to be a good neighbour, you could probably stroll around the block with your laptop and get a good idea of which house was hosting the network you are connecting to based on signal strength. A note in the mailbox advising the occupants to configure their network more securely would certainly qualify as your good turn for the day.