From Newstips.org reports

By Julia Korol

Lingering one night after hours to finish up some work, Tony Dreyfuss, one of the owners of Metropolis Coffee in Rogers Park, noticed that something wasn't quite right. Except for the giant bags of coffee stacked against the back wall, the place was deserted. And yet the Internet network claimed that 230 users were connected.

Next door and across the street from Metropolis Coffee are two 300-unit apartment buildings each giving at least 600 residents the opportunity to log onto the coffee shop's wireless network, according to Dreyfuss.

Since the widespread public adoption of Wi-Fi, coffee shops have been shiny beacons of hope for the laptop crowd of young professionals and sleep-deprived students as they sip some java and hammer away at their keyboards. But lately, more and more coffee shops are finding themselves tightening Internet network security to prevent nearby residents from surfing the Web on the shop owner's dime.