Members of the BuzzBlog Brigade were asked to weigh in on the notion of private property owners being required by regulation or law to secure their wireless networks. Here’s what Doug Murray had to say:
Your condo/hotel has more right to control wireless access than government does since a private transaction can include any legal provisions one party can get the other to accept. If a prospect doesn’t like the rules, he doesn’t have to do business, especially if these are luxury digs.
It’s likely the condo/hotel operator provides Internet service to all its units, so it doesn’t surprise me that they would take steps to be sure the service is limited to tenants. An open access point in every room could create a pretty good hot spot for whoever wanders into the lobby, not to mention the rest of the neighborhood, with the hotel (or its ISP) footing the bill. They also may be providing a firewall that would become irrelevant with uncontrolled access.
Another consideration concerns the luxury aspect. If they are after celebrity guests, they certainly don’t want to expose them to any passing laptop.
Of course, if they’re charging a fee for access, they wouldn’t want someone to dodge it by being lucky enough to have a room next to an unsecured system.
Requiring owners and guests to secure any WAPs they bring in doesn’t sound unreasonable to me.
— Doug Murray
