These days, minor disagreements are often over-dramatised. Go to the service formerly known as Twitter, lay out your opinion and wait for the backlash, which becomes more important than the original subject ever was. I’m one of those anti-social networking people, because I believe that, as Mr J Lydon of Public Image Ltd once sang, “anger is an energy”. By all means warm people up to their subject, but don’t take the conversation to places from which no return is possible. You should always aim to be able to shake hands after the discussion is over.
If there was ever going to be a subject that puts this rule to the test, it’s the ticklish business of borrowing a neighbour’s Wi-Fi when yours isn’t co-operating. It ought not to be a problem: many ISPs include a roaming connection feature that uses VLAN configurations to sequester a small part of everybody’s bandwidth to support passing users. Maybe that was more assured when life was simpler and only techies like you and me were really fiddling about with Wi-Fi; nowadays, some of the row of little houses I call home have three repeaters. That’s not much in a 3,000 square foot Victorian mansion, but all our houses fit into a footprint of 23 feet by 11. I probably see over 50 SSIDs, on the rare occasions I stop hiding behind the sofa and try to find myself some unoccupied spectrum to communicate over.
The people making allegations about the risks of neighbour Wi-Fi are VPN providers. Shouldn’t be a shock,
