[johnny football hero]

When I'm out and about and have time to kill, I noticed there are a lot of open Wi-Fi signals out there. Is it safe to use these signals? I'm paranoid someone would be able to get my e-mail password for example. So if I hook into one of these open public Wi-Fi signals should I just keep to internet surfing and no email? Or is it safe and nothing to worry about?

[Rene Ritchie]

You are right to be paranoid. If you're not using an secure connection (SSL), your email password is likely being transmitted via clear text and could be snooped by anyone else on the network (in fact, people set up open networks just to do this).

If you're connecting via SSL, or even better, have a VPN running, you should be fine. You can also log into SSL secured web mail (https), like https://www.gmail.com/

Better safe than sorry.