WiFi hotspot and more.

Whilst fiddling about with the WiFi settings on my E61 I have discovered that my house is a WiFi hotspot. Both of my neighbours appear to have insecure wireless networks in their homes.
Perhaps it was a little naughty of me but my last post was sent piggybacking on one of them to test our whether WiFi works and if it is all it is cracked up to be. Needless to say, it worked just fine. There will be no need for me to hitch a ride again as, when I am at home, my own computer and internet connection is preferable to theirs.
However this test does raise a couple of questions.
If home WiFi network users leave their systems unprotected from piggybackers should this be deemed an invitation to ride?
Secondly, the manufacturers and retailers of the kit should do more to make these networking devices secure.
Though I have limited knowledge of the subject, I am sure there is an inexpensive way for users of Wi-Fi networks, either domestic or commercial to require a login password for access.
Those who do not set this up are asking for trouble.

Back to the E61. Setting up the WiFi connecting was a piece of cake, though I did not find the instruction booklet too helpful. Access to the internet was amazingly quick compared to my normal 3G service. Pages were rendered exactly as expected and compared favourably with my computer, which is very impressive for a mobile device. The page overview was just as on my Mac. Using the navigation frame was a quick, simple and accurate way to move among the page contents. What I loved was the page history. Not the normal list of page location, but a graphical rendering of all the pages in sequence. Desktop browsers could do with something similar as it is so user friendly.

One additional word of note here, the E61 screen is exactly the right size to show the full width of the text section on this blog. Using the zoom in and out facility the browser can accomodate smaller or larger widths, though readability does suffer at two steps out.


Thumbs up then for WiFi and the web browser on the E61.