This study out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sounds great:

Software Allows Neighbors To Improve Internet Access At No Extra Cost

The way they are accomplishing higher throughput makes sense: use

multiple paths. However, I'm not so sold on how secure this will

necessarily be. The software has some allowances for security but

basically it means willingly allowing another onto your private

network. Don't get me wrong. Wireless as implemented in most homes

isn't anywhere near to secure, however, I think this type of solution

may present folks with a false sense of security: "This software

handles security for me so I don't have to do anything else."

A couple of years ago I saw a presentation at Black Hat about how firewalls and the concepts we have for perimeter-based security models aren't going to cut it in the future

(Keynote:

Thinking Outside the Box–Embracing Globalization). The trick then is to

ensure each individual system is secure and that they talk with each

other using secure mechanisms. While this may end up being the rule in

the enterprise, I doubt the average home user is going to get to a

point where he or she is going to be able to lock down a computer

system to be reasonably secure in an environment such as this.