2.14 What is a Wireless Hotspot?

A Wireless Hotspot is a place where you can BYO wireless PC or PDA and get Internet Access. Many Cafes now provide a Wireless Hotspot and the service can be either free or paid or reserved for customer use.

There's also subscription based services at multiple locations such as those provided by Telstra

And then there's the unofficial Wireless Hotspots known to WarDrivers which are the poor saps that haven't secured their Wireless Networks properly...

3.1 What is Wardriving?

Wardriving is an enthusiast hobby that involves driving around in a car (or Taxi, Bicycle, on foot etc) with a wireless Laptop or PDA and recording the Wireless Access points discovered. There is obviously a less than honorable element that will try to utilise any Wireless connection they find to gain "free" Internet access (at the owner's expense) or steal software/registration codes or just poke their noses where they don't belong.

Legally it's a grey area as technically they're in a public area scanning public radio frequencies and it's very difficult to prove they've accessed your PCs at all (and usually they wouldn't anyway. It's the Internet connection that's more interesting).

Many of these characters have the attitude that if people don't secure their Wireless Networks then they must be deliberately providing a free Internet (Wireless Hotspot) community service and in many ways they wouldn't be wrong...

Reference for the above information comes from:

http://www.ozcableguy.com/wireless.html

http://www.ozcableguy.com/wireless.html#3.1