This is my story and I'm sticking to it...
I was sitting in the kitchen of my mother-in-law's house using the cellular modem to connect. We had just finished dinner and my wife and her mother were cleaning up the kitchen. Once the kitchen was clean, the conversation migrated to the living room. I decided to take my laptop with me to the living room.
As I sat down in the living room WinXP dutifully notified me that I had access to a wireless network. I clicked on the informational notification and it said the wireless network 'linksys' was available but was not secure. I choose to connect anyway and it failed. The signal was too weak. I moved to the extreme west end of the room and was able to connect with a low signal.
Since it was dark, I went outside into the middle of the street and walked to the end of my mother-in-law's property. I had five bars strength. 11mbps.
Well, I opened my VPN and downloaded my Email. Just like at home.
Now, if you purchase a Linksys router. One of the first things they suggest is that you change your SSID, not to mention turn off the broadcast mode. I suspect that the neighbor has not even changed the password to the router. I'm guessing that I have complete access to their home network and can completely take over their router and make it my own.
Luckily, for them, I am not that kind of guy. I will probably go over there and tell them what is happening and show them how to change it....Right before we leave for Yampa on Wednesday