Man in the middle worries

Newbie to wireless question,

My apartmentbuilding resently changed from wireless with WEP key to these guys: SMART ZONE - Internet for Apartment Mansion Dormitory µÔ´µÑé§ ÍÔ¹à·ÍÃìà¹çµ Ë;ѡ ;ÒÃì·àÁé¹µì áÁ¹ªÑè¹ ¤Í¹â´ÁÕà¹ÕÂÁ ÃéÒ¹ÍÒËÒà ÃéÒ¹¡Òá¿ so no more encryption & security by WEP, basically nothing now i think!

If i open my browser now (any browser, any url) i see a webpage asking for a LOGIN & PASSWORD
also it says: You are currently connected to SmartZone™ network at V Place (V.Place apartments)

Since i do online payments i really would like to know how safe this new situation is thinking of man in the middle attacks and so!

I use winXP with zonealarm firewall, netstumbler and airsnare
Netstumbler shows 4 accesspoints and 2 belong to Vplace i guess because they have ssid with Vplace (green & yellow/grey color and no lock)

If i turn on Airsnare i see many unfriendly MAC addresses but thats also because (i think) i didn't mark other people beside myself as "trusted"
or "friendly" Some of the unfriendly ones have the name "router" other ones just an IP
On the right/below i see things like: Possible mac spoofing detected,
entry does not match known OUI's for some of the unfriendly addresses.

What i really would like to know is about this (new) smartzoneonline.com wireless internet solution, if it is possible to fake/spoof the access to this accesspoint using smartzoneonline.com?

smartzoneonline.com comes without security/encryption (no lock in statusbar) Netstumbler also doesn't show a lock...just green color for accesspoint "Vplace"!
Can that be unsafe for me / for them (smartzoneonline.com) / or both?

Does this mean data send from me to accesspoint is always plaintext? (hotmail login etc...)
Can unfriendly mac's find out my password for hotmail, yahoo..etc...?

Anything (simple) i can do to be more secure as a newbie?
(cannot configure the accesspoint since it isn't mine)

Thanks for all help in advance...

In unencrypted zone it is possible to organize Wi-Fi side-jakking atacks. In order to protect yourself from it, use crypto-client or VPN.

__________________
ITDEFENCE.ru
From Russia with love.

Hello thanks for your reply :-)
U told me: In unencrypted zone it is possible to organize Wi-Fi side-jakking atacks. In order to protect yourself from it, use crypto-client or VPN...but i cannot configure or change settings in router/accesspoint(s) because it isn't mine...it belongs to the owner of the building and they don't allow changes being made by others!
Do i need to download VPN or just change settings? I mean is VPN a name of a program or..?