Originally Posted by anotherbrian
We've been here for the past week now (arrived on Fri, leaving this coming Saturday) and I've made due with dial-up.
We're staying in an apartment right off Rue Montorgueil at the opposite end from Les Halles. From the apartment I can see six wireless networks, and _every single one_ has WEP enabled. ...? I drove from Chicago to California a few weeks ago and could reliably find an open AP in every po-dunk town along the way (which was pleasantly surprising).
I did find both of the XS Arena shops (and noted the next door KFC and bar/pub!) along Blvd de Sebastopol but didn't stop in. I can deal with French keyboards, but can't get the VPN access I need except on my laptop.
Actually, most of people using wifi at home here in France are equipped with modems designed for their provider and which automatically enable WEP/WPA encryption. And as the majority do not know how to disable it and, more important, do not care at all, this results in what you described.
On the 8 networks I see in my Parisian office, 0 are "open"
C'est la vie !