To use the many free wireless network points available in the UK and Europe 
while travelling, you need to have a suitable detector program that will 
alert you to the presence of a WIFI signal and tell you if it is unencrypted 
or not, and indicate the signal strength.

Here is where you can download the best programs FREE!

For Windows XP
http://www.stumbler.net/

for Windows Vista
http://www.suriv.be/downloads/download.asp?did=1

You can use these programs with a GPS to record the precise geographic 
location of every network you encounter that can be used to create GPS 
waypoints to display all WIFI transmitters you pass on a map system.

Many free network access points are provided by companies or local councils 
and also by private individuals who intentionally leave their networks open. 
Some networks are also left open and unencrypted by ignorance of the owner, 
and there is no way to tell in many cases which is the case. Sometimes a 
network will have an identifying name, sometimes not, depends how the owner 
has set it up.

The law in the UK is as usual an ass, and despite the fact that one has no 
way of knowing if a network is intentionally open or not, there have been 
one or two cases of a person being arrested for using a network without 
permission in 2007. See  http://www.out-law.com/page-8405

In this case of the person charged, "Scotland Yard said that when questioned 
the man said that he was using the unsecured wireless internet connection of 
a nearby house. He was arrested and bailed until 11th October." In other 
words the poor fool talked himself into jail!

Considering the thousands of networks in the country and the number of times 
this so called offence occurs, and that there are many deliberately open 
networks such cases are an absurdity. However in the extremely unlikely 
event that you should ever be approached by police in such circumstances, 
you should make no admission of using any wireless network. Surely the UK 
police have better things to do, enforcing the creeping police state that 
the UK has become,  and the fact that there have been so few cases suggests 
that is so.

The situation where people could be charged with an offence for connecting 
to a network, which is effectively broadcasting an invitation to connect, 
and when they have no way of knowing if it is open by intent or by ignorance 
is ridiculous. If that is the law it needs to be changed to make it an 
offence only if the network secured and is "hacked", that is encryption is 
actively broken or bypassed. Common sense dictates that as there are 
numerous open networks that one can connect to there should be no offence in 
connecting passively to any network which permits or invites connection.

To work effectively from your campervan choose a WIFI card that has a small 
flip up antenna that will give better range. You will find such cards on 
Ebay. You can also get WIFI cards with provision for an external antenna 
that you can mount on top of your van. These are readily available on Ebay 
along with a range of external and directional antennas.

There are accessible WIFI points all over Europe too that you can use when 
touring with you caravan or campervan. McDonalds have free WIFI in France 
accessible from the car parks often, and like the UK there are other 
intentionally open and ignorantly open networks.

In case there are legal absurdities there too, you should never make any 
statement admitting that you are using a WIFI network if questioned by 
anybody including police. You can not know in many cases if the network is 
internally open or not, and the stupidity of the situation in the UK demands 
that you use some common sense and don't talk your way into jail. Using your 
computer mapping system or writing your travel notes is a perfectly logical 
answer if any busy body asks what you are doing.

To satisfy the wingers, so that they can not claim that I am inciting a 
British crime wave, you should always take all reasonable steps to ensure 
that the network you connect to is intended for public access. To do this, 
upon detecting an unsecured network you should go to the door of every 
premises within 100 meters and knock on the door to enquire if they have a 
WIFI network, if it is encrypted or not, and if not if that is their 
intention, or is it due to ignorance. You must ask for their WIFI 
identification name, to be sure you have the right network. If it is the 
right network get the owner to sign a statuary declaration that he gives 
permission to use his network to download your e-mail.
You must repeat this knocking on doors until you find the origin of the 
network you have detected. You must do this regardless of the time of day 
and must do so loudly enough so that a reasonable man, being a person of 
average hearing ability and not being affected by drugs or alcohol could 
reasonably be expected to have heard the knocking and if necessary to have 
been awakened by it, in order that he may have every reasonable opportunity 
to confirm or deny that he agrees to the use of his WIFI which he has 
configured, or has failed to configure due to ignorance (stupidity not 
withstanding) to broadcast to the world that it is unsecured and that it 
will accept incoming connections from any computer that asks. This procedure 
must be repeated until you find the source of the network or until you have 
knocked on 100 doors, or all those premises within 100 meters of the 
position in which you detected the signal, whichever occurs the first.

If you have still not located the owner of the network, and have not 
suffered grievous bodily harm by this time, you may be presumed to have 
taken all reasonable steps to have confirmed that the network was open by 
intent, as opposed to being open by oversight, stupidity, ignorance or 
similar extraneous causes.  You will then be deemed to have obtained defacto 
consent to the use of  the network, and may legally download your e-mail.

No information in this message should be taken as legal advice and you 
should consult you qualified legal practitioner or psychiatrist for advice.

In message , 
Campervanman  writes
>
>You can use these programs with a GPS to record the precise geographic
>location of every network you encounter that can be used to create GPS
>waypoints to display all WIFI transmitters you pass on a map system.
<Giant snip>

This guy is rapidly becoming a complete PITA

Plonking mechanism will shortly be activated.
-- 
hugh
Reply to address is valid at the time of posting

"hugh"  wrote in message 
news:2m2fBwC8u0fJFATZ@raefell.demon.co.uk...

> This guy is rapidly becoming a complete PITA
>
> Plonking mechanism will shortly be activated.
> -- 
> hugh

So why do you red it, hugh? (Funny name, no capital, maybe means no head, or 
no brain?)

http://campervanman.741.com/

In message , 
Campervanman  writes
>
>"hugh"  wrote in message
>news:2m2fBwC8u0fJFATZ@raefell.demon.co.uk...
>
>> This guy is rapidly becoming a complete PITA
>>
>> Plonking mechanism will shortly be activated.
>> --
>> hugh
>
>So why do you red it, hugh? (Funny name, no capital, maybe means no head, or
>no brain?)
>
>http://campervanman.741.com/
>
>
Is it half-term in Australia at the moment?
-- 
hugh
Reply to address is valid at the time of posting