Technobabbles I try to sound like I know what I'm talking about. Don't be fooled.

WiFi Surfers Beware

Having just encountered this issue myself, I find it a good idea to reiterate this tip. When going to a business with free WiFi, such as Panera Bread, Dunn Brothers Coffee, Caribou, etc., make sure you know the name of the network to connect to, and that you only click on access point networks. I just logged on here at Panera Bread and was faced with two public networks: One named PANERA and one named Free Public WiFi. The former, which was an access point, is the real network, and the other, scammy-looking one (to me) was an ad-hoc network between computers. Connecting to this kind of network could lead to anything from simple data skimming to identity theft. Just a word of warning. I think I'll go notify the manager of this malicious network (whose signal strength was stronger than the real one).

Having just encountered this issue myself, I find it a good idea to reiterate this tip. When going to a business with free WiFi, such as Panera Bread, Dunn Brothers Coffee, Caribou, etc., make sure you know the name of the network to connect to, and that you only click on access point networks. I just logged on here at Panera Bread and was faced with two public networks: One named PANERA and one named Free Public WiFi. The former, which was an access point, is the real network, and the other, scammy-looking one (to me) was an ad-hoc network between computers. Connecting to this kind of network could lead to anything from simple data skimming to identity theft. Just a word of warning. I think I'll go notify the manager of this malicious network (whose signal strength was stronger than the real one).