Unfortunately I've noticed a major obstacle to getting nearby hardware talking to each other: WPA. Seriously, why prevent people from using a network? If you'r

Unfortunately I've noticed a major obstacle to getting nearby hardware talking to each other: WPA. Seriously, why prevent people from using a network? If you're relying on WPA for security then you shouldn't be connecting to the Internet in the first place. The most common thing I hear when guests see that my WiFi is open is that people will 'steal the bandwidth', as if the local exchange will magically run faster if there are enough residences connected to it! Also, given the monopoly position of phone provider, getting everyone to throw more money at them for the privilege of having multiple overlapping, mutually-exclusive networks is not a good plan.