I was standing outside of an office building the other day waiting for a friend to join me for lunch. While standing there, I decided to see if I could latch onto the somewhat nearby (ok, half a block) Starbucks Hotspot while waiting (definitely a long shot). Instead, I saw yet another instance of the viral SSID called Free Public WiFi. I often see these in airports and conferences. I think it was the first time I saw it standing on a sidewalk area. It is not usually dangerous in the sense that it is a malicious attempt to snare your wireless signal. It is more of an indicating of someone with a Microsoft Windows based notebook with Wireless Zero Configuration turned on. You can read more about this at the WLANBook.com site…
You’ll note that the “Free Public WiFi” connection is an ad-hoc one (client-to-client, not an access point). WLANBook.com also has an explanation for that oddball looking ad-hoc hpsetup SSID. Oy! 