Wireless - Is Security Needed?

[California]

I started to draft a reply to several of the points here but it got too longwinded so I put it off until I know a little more.

But on the legal issue:

I asked both the sales clerk who wrote my order, and the tech who helped me set up. Both said there is no restriction on sharing. Then I read the Terms of Service and AUP on the website and there is no mention of sharing while they are very detailed re paying your bill and misuse of the connection for spamming, newsgroup disruption, etc. I conclude that sharing is not an issue if two of their employees encourage it and there is no relevant published standard to compare my use against. End of the legal issue.

This ISP is in the forefront of encouraging wireless hot spots and multi-mile rural line-of-sight wireless links to extend their coverage area. They were a one town ISP that is growing to become a regional leader and frankly, they have everything that the big national companies lack. Some of you may be familiar with O'Reily networking reference books. These guys and O'Reily are in adjacent towns, and are working side by side to help the Internet realize its full potential. There used to be a lot of good ISP's like this, but nearly all sold their operation to larger consolidators.

Ok, back to security. More uninformed (so far) questions: One suggestion above mentions separate subnets that use a common modem. This configuration sounds like it has one modem-connected router hosting two other routers, is that correct?

 

[MossRoad]

One suggestion above mentions separate subnets that use a common modem. This configuration sounds like it has one modem-connected router hosting two other routers, is that correct?

Not quite.... you can do it with one router.
Let's say the outside IP address is 1. The home network is 2 and the tennant network is 3.

You set up one route so that all 2 traffic goes to 1.
Then you set up another route so that all 3 traffic goes to 1.
Then you set up a route that sends all 1 traffice to the internet.
There is no route from 2 to 3, so they cannot see each other.

Pretty simple stuff once you get the hang of it.