The "How to Participate" page states:
"Alternatively, you can open up your access point to all mac addresses and turning off WEP (if these terms don’t mean anything to you, contact one of us and we’ll do our best to help)."

I am curious as to what advice you give to non-technical people reguarding these security features of their access point. Is the setup of their home network taken into account before they are advised to disable these features?

I reality I doubt you'd find many non-technical people with these security features enabled since almost all access points currently ship with these features disabled.

Nate, good points – I’ve added a quick note about security to the article you mention.

If we were to advise to someone to open their access- point, it would be with the disclaimer that they are doing just that: opening their network – to goodies and baddies. The NYCWireless site has a good answer to the question of security: Is it secure? No!

Yes, that's a good answer at NYCWireless. In the other thread you mentioned fear as a hindrance to open WIFI networks. I assume you mean fears about security. While paranoia is certainly unhelpful, there are some valid concerns when it comes to wireless security.

I think some of the confusion comes from the lack of distinction between public and private networks when wireless security is discussed. While the same networking hardware is used in both types of networks, the security concerns are quite different. The security features in current access point such as MAC lists and WEP are designed for private networks. They are designed to wirelessly extend whatever privacy the private network already has. This is done by controlling access and encrypting transmitted data.

There is nothing inherently bad about public networks... that's what the Internet is afterall. The concerns arise when trying to protect private systems that are connected to a public network. Long before WIFI, The original approach was to secure systems individually by securing all software and by carefully authenticating all remote access. This is both difficult and unattractive among a group of trusted systems. The more popular way to define the public-private division has been the firewall approach. Behind the firewall is a private network where security can be more relaxed. While firewall rules can be complex, the basic operation is simple: traffic is limited between the public and private sides.

Router boxes are finally starting to secure home networks of non-technical people. Although these boxes are usually marketed for the purpose of internet sharing, they have the benefit of being a natural firewall. This is a benefit to both the owner and the Internet community at large since it helps to reduce the spreading of certain types of viruses and makes it more difficult for systems to be used in a distributed denial of service attacks.

What does this all have to do with public WIFI? Public and private networks are different by definition. When a wireless access point is installed its configuration should be dependent on the type of network. For a private network use MAC lists and WEP to keep the network private. For a public network disable those features and create a public WIFI AP. It is impossible to do both at once.

My point echoes Nates from the other erspective. As long as the technology is set for public use and participants are aware and accepting of the risk they are taking, there is no likelihood of a backlash. You never want to be a test case for anything, least of all the rights of an unhappy participant in a WiFi.

You obviously need this little bit of equipment.

Or one of these....

Interesting insert in Wired magazine recently.