> Open WiFi in this day and age is kind of stupid.
Why? I genuinely want to know. What harm is there if my WiFi is open? Is there a danger that someone will use up my bandwidth? (I don't really care.) Is there a risk that evil [child pornographers / terrorists / whoever it is we hate this week] will use my open WiFi connection and thus be completely untraceable (which they could never have achieved without my assistance)?
If your IP is traced to images of child abuse then you will at the very least have a lot of explaining to do. Is it really worth running the risk of someone using your open wifi for this?
Firesheep is another example of why not. If you use WPA then even plain http traffic is encrypted from your computer to the wireless router. If you have completely open wifi then the traffic between your computer and the router is in the plain for everyone to inspect freely.
Why? I genuinely want to know. What harm is there if my WiFi is open? Is there a danger that someone will use up my bandwidth? (I don't really care.) Is there a risk that evil [child pornographers / terrorists / whoever it is we hate this week] will use my open WiFi connection and thus be completely untraceable (which they could never have achieved without my assistance)?