I think E.T. is out there someplace, but I'm not sure where. If we discover a signal I think it will come from near the middle of our galaxy. Discovering life would be great! If we do discover a signal, like every other discovery, there will be risks and challenges. Earth should send a few signals for others to find and include Earths location and other info that could interest an alien species in our world. I run Seti@home to keep my computer active when I'm away.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.