I was just watching our local nightly news & they said that Portland,Ore has free Wi Fi access in the downtown area. I'm wondering, can't people hack into your computer with a public Wi Fi network? That's an unsecured network correct?
Just kinda wondering as Washington state has Wi Fi in it's highway rest areas also.

Be very careful using public Wi-Fi. It's not so much as a threat to your computer from hackers, but more from the dangers of people "sniffing" your private information sent over the air waves.

I'm in airports quite often and most have a public Wi Fi system now, and I make it a point to NEVER do any online banking or purchase anything that requires a credit card number on public Wi-Fi systems.

Public places such as libraries, parks, coffee shops, etc are some of the most popular places for such "sniffers." Checking email and surfing the net should not be a problem, just be aware that someone may be watching.

As long as you keep yoru firewall active (XP has a decent one built-in), you are safe from people accessing your computer over the shared wifi.

As long as you see "https" (not just "http") in the address bar of your browser, all transactions sent between you and the website you are connecting to are encrypted and nobody - no matter how hard they try - is going to be able to decrypt that info.

The real problem comes when you let down or inappropriately configure the firewall with regard to your wireless connection.