Reply #54: That's a parlor trick ... not at all mysterious to network folks.

[TahitiNut]

If you're on a broadband connection (e.g. cable TV), then it's likely you can actually 'look at' everything anyone on your subnet (perhaps even more than 2,000 subscribers) is doing on the internet ... including email, web surfing, or anything else. Very rarely is it encrypted. It's merely a matter of putting your Internet adapter into 'promiscuous mode.' It's the same thing on a wireless internet connection, without the trouble of running coax.

That's a function of CSMA/CD bus topology where "everyone on the bus shares the air." (A poor little pun there.)

Clearly, one of the downsides to any limited range wireless technology, whether it's CB, 900MHz wireless phones, wireless modems, or whatever is the fact that anyone with a receiver can 'listen in' to what's going on if they're within range.

There are technical ways of protecting such networks using encryption (at very low levels), tempest technologies, and a multitude of tricks ... but it's not done much in the consumer realm.