In the world of wardrivers, there are the good guys and there are the bad guys.

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Wardrivers are people who ride in their cars with laptop computers and scout for wireless Internet, or WiFi, connections. Wardriver Rick Farina of Robinson says he is doing good by identifying unsecured wireless networks and, for a starting price of $75, offering to help their owners protect them.

Other wardrivers aren't so well-intentioned. They take advantage of another person's wireless router -- a device allowing multiple computers in a home or office to share high-speed access to the Internet -- to snoop, to spam, and at worst, to steal personal information.

Consumers are rapidly setting up these convenient Internet connections, but many are unaware that unsecured, their home wireless networks can be tapped into accidentally by neighbors surfing the Web or intentionally by criminals eager to hack into a personal computer.

"It's like handing everyone access to your network," said Farina, who built his business, WiredWireless, around helping people secure their wireless networks. "If [hackers] try hard enough, they can do anything they want. Why make it easy for them?"

Wi-Fi networks are no longer the domain of geeks prowling for coolest new technology. It's estimated that 10 million American homes now have them, and WiFi "hot spots" are popping up everywhere -- in coffee shops, airports, hotels and libraries.

Since the wireless router is designed to extend the radio signal providing an Internet connection, its range can reach as far as 150 feet onto the street, the yard, even into nearby homes.

So a thief could sit on the curb outside a home or business and with some savvy, a laptop with a WiFi card and the right software, gain access to private information on your computer.

Law enforcement officials, increasingly concerned about wireless networks, say the possibilities for mischief run the gamut . A wireless hacker's intentions could be as malevolent as identity theft or as benign as using a neighbor's Internet connection to check e-mail or scan the newspaper online.

Some times they drain other people's bandwidth to illegally download movies and other copyrighted material or access pornography.

Others are pranksters, who maliciously lock people out of their wireless networks just for fun, or they are spammers, who use other people's Internet access to send masses of unsolicited e-mail.

At worst, sophisticated hackers tap into hard drives to access private information, including credit card numbers, bank accounts and passwords. Because they are using a wireless connection, the crime cannot be easily traced back to them.

"All of the risks can be distilled down to one issue," said Larry Rogers, a senior member of the technical staff at the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT, which tracks and monitors computer security issues. Wireless networks are vulnerable, and determined hackers will penetrate them.

Mike Godwin, legal director at Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C.-based technology think tank, said most consumers would not notice if a neighbor tapped into their network to surf the Web because it would not affect the speed or strength of their Internet connection.

Godwin said it's not illegal to utilize another person's wireless connection, but polite neighbors might want to determine whose service they are borrowing and offer to help pay the cost of the high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

But Peg Fiedler of Swissvale said she's not interested in sharing her Internet with her neighbors or anyone else.

"My feeling is, since this is a service I set up for myself, if someone wants to do that, they should do what is necessary to get their own," Fiedler said.

To make sure no one snoops around her two home computers, Fiedler hired the "Geek Squad" from electronics retailer Best Buy to set up and secure her wireless access point. Now when she uses the Internet to bank online and pay some of her monthly bills, she said she doesn't worry about Internet crooks.

Consumers can provide protection to their networks by activating built-in encryption capabilities. But many newcomers to the wireless world don't know they need such the security or ignore it because it's too complicated to set up.

Josh Stomark, manager of InSync Computers, Inc., in Bethel Park said that about only half of the consumers who have his company set up wireless networks ask about security. "The other half," said Stomark, "won't ask, and I don't think they know to ask."

Computer experts suggest that at the minimum, consumers who buy wireless routers should deploy the basic security and encryption measures that are suggested by the router's manufacturer.

This includes making your wireless antennas "invisible" so that Web surfers can't see it when checking for nearby WiFi networks, and taking measures to scramble the data that is leaving your computer and going out into cyberspace.

But even that might not be enough.

While testing the strength of a friend's supposedly secure, encrypted wireless network recently, it took "good guy" wardriver Farina only 40 minutes to break in.

Farina the latest encryption technologies are good, "but it's not perfect."

And that's how Farina's planning to grow his young company.

Farina, whose business is based in Toledo, Ohio, finds customers by driving around in blue-green Nissan Altima, equipped with a GPS tracking system, his laptop and a small WiFi antenna.

His computer identifies the wireless networks and his GPS maps their specific location.

The seven-inch antennae perched atop his car helps him get better range. After finding the unsecured wireless network, Farina introduces himself to the consumer and offers to help -- for a price.

Even some computer-savvy businesses, according to Farina, often have no idea how to ward off WiFi hackers.

Farina said he found a company in Toledo that was sharing their wireless Internet with another location about three-quarters of a mile away. Using a computer program, Farina could easily access all of their e-mail traffic, user names, passwords and critical company information within minutes. When he informed the firm, the IT manager said he wasn't concerned.

"The fact of the matter is very few people believe that people are driving around with antennas on their cars looking for this sort of thing," said Farina.

Legal expert Godwin thinks that the growing anxiety about wireless hackers is overblown. "There's a certain paranoia in that view of the world," he said.

But Andrew Widdowson, a Carnegie Mellon University computer science major and wireless security enthusiast, likens wireless theft to modern-day "dumpster diving" -- where thieves check trash for credit card and bank account statements.

"It's rather alarming," he said, noting that "it's not whether something is breakable or not. It's how much time we think we have before someone does break it."