Much buzz online today about comments by Wired's Bruce Schneier suggesting that it's perfectly acceptable - in fact, it's just "basic politeness" - to run an open wireless network.

Chances are, Schneier says, nobody will use your open network to commit a crime - and more importantly, "If someone did commit a crime using my network the police might visit, but what better defense is there than the fact that I have an open wireless network? If I enabled wireless security on my network and someone hacked it, I would have a far harder time proving my innocence."

Wi-Fi Net News' Glenn Fleishman calls Schneier's arguments "stupid" and warns, "Open networks constructed properly with good security are a great addition to the arsenal of access. Implicitly advising everyone to open their APs - not so good."



At Slashdot, an Anonymous Coward agrees, writing, "Keeping an open wireless network is just ASKING for trouble. If you want to deal with federal agents in the middle of the night, well, be my guest."

Still, not everyone thinks Schneier is an idiot - Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow notes, "I've run open wireless networks since the late 1990s (in five cities in three countries) and I've never encountered the problems that everyone says are inevitable - network contention, crap from my ISP, busts for the child-porn my neighbors are downloading from my network."

And TechDirt's Tim Lee writes, "On the list of potential network security threats, an open Wi-Fi network is probably pretty low on the list."

He's right, of course - but me, I'll stick with WPA2.

More here from Broadband Reports ... more here from Lifehacker ... more here from Computerworld ... and more here from NetworkWorld.