Free Public WiFi SSID is Not Virus ?

Free Public WiFi SSID at WLAN Book.com.

I was told this stuff is a virus so I avoided it. Apparently it isn’t. However the network SSID does seem to have some viral characteristics. In summary :

In reality, this SSID is just one of many viral SSIDs that exist anywhere people are with laptops (almost always Microsoft Windows based laptops). In almost all cases this SSID is not a real WiFi hotspot access point but someone else’s laptop in Ad-Hoc mode advertising this SSID

The answer to why this SSID seems to be everywhere can be blamed on Microsoft, more specifically a Windows feature called Wireless Auto Configuration (aka Wireless Zero Configuration).

One of the suggestions the article makes :

Can this viral SSID be stopped?
Yes, but others exist like linksys, hpsetup, tmobile, default. Any SSID that tends be the default for consumer grade access points and computers tends to become viral ad hoc SSIDs. An easy way to reduce the risk of connecting to these SSIDs is to configure Wireless Auto Configuration to only connect to access points (infrastructure networks).

Seems interesting how in a suspicious world even innocuous mistakes get looked at suspiciously. Also apparently seems a good example of law of unintended consequences which again software / usability designers need to be conscious of.