[Shop-talk] Wireless router - signal boost

[John Miller]

> Or just don't run horribly insecure operating systems and  
> applications and don't communicate sensitive data via the network in  
> plain text.  I've only read about half of this thread, so forgive me  
> if someone's already mentioned this, but I fail to see the salient  
> difference between running an open network at home is from being on  
> free wifi at a coffee shop or the like.  Am I missing something?

In a coffee shop it's someone else's problem what gets onto the network 
and what goes out from it.

In your environment, if your neighbors or someone wardriving past your 
neck of the woods decides to poach on your 'net, maybe they're benign 
and the worst that'll happen is that they'll eat some of your bandwidth. 
  Maybe they're not so benign and they go after machines on your 
network, or maybe they'll go after someone else's machines over your 
connection or otherwise do something that at the VERY LEAST forces your 
ISP to cut you off for a while and maybe gets your IPs on a bunch of 
spam/malware blacklists.

If you want to see the outcome of a commercial failure to use 
appropriate wireless security, go google 'tjx breach' or 'tjx penetration'.

John.