(Bing -- Bing --- BingBingBing) "Everytime we hear the noise, we're getting an access point beaconing out more information or its identity," says Todd Waskelis of Guardent, a Massachusetts Internet Security company.

It's called war driving - using an antenna, a laptop equipped with a wireless networking card and loaded with what's called "sniffer software" to pick up wireless networks.

They're nicknamed "wi-fi" and "hot spots." Whatever you call them, these networks are turning up in homes, at coffee shops, and a lot of companies. The access points, wireless routers, and wireless networking cards for handheld computers are relatively cheap these days.

Waskelis is using a high gain antenna to pick up the packets, the little ones and zeroes being broadcast by wireless networks that reach farther than people think.

"I think people look at the physical structure of walls and think that gee, I'm contarined within them, and in the wireless world that's just not true," says Daniel McCall, one of the founders ofGuardent. "In fact, if you have your wireless access point near a single wall, the outside probably has better access than your basement."

We cruise down residential streets, businesses downtown. The wireless networks keep announcing themselves. (Bing) (Bing) Names like Linksys, default, conference room.

A lot of people just take the wireless gear out of the box, hook up cables, use the default settings, and don't bother enabling encryption.

Someone with bad intentions could steal information from many of the systems, which appeared to be unprotected. Waskelis commented on networks as he sniffed. "Straight out of the box, default, no encryption, wide open, probably no password for the admin account. (IJ)And that's dangerous? "Very dangerous." (IJ) And what would it take to get into a system there? "About 20 seconds, about 20 seconds to gain access to the corporate LAN, resources and maybe onto the Internet to do what I want."

And people who use unprotected wireless networks at home to hook up to the company network can present a security problem. "They've opened up a new vulnerability that would allow an attacker to stand outside a home and then gain access to a corporate network, so the problem expands exponentially as you take into account teleworkers with cable modems or dsl. It's just another high speed access point into a corporate lan," says McCall.

In 30 minutes, Guardent found more than 200 wireless networks and more than half of them were unencrypted. The company offers a service to its business clients that "sniffs" out wireless access points that may have been secretly installed by employees or vendors. Guardent says companies should embrace wireless networking and control it, not just let it go.

BingBingBing, the networks just keep on coming.