The ethics of stealing wifi
oops. never promoted this story from “draft” so it never showed up until today (12-3). This was meant to solicit comments, so lets have some!
There’s a great article here about stealing wifi access. Since I am a confirmed paranoid about wifi security, I couldn’t help but read something entitled “How To Steal Wi-Fi And how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours.” Long ago I changed…
the Airport’s default network name, added a crazy (unguessable?) password and set up WPA encryption (I have read that this is more secure than the WEP that was so common until recently).
Personally, I have no desire to create an open access point at home. I don’t need anyone parking in my driveway while they surf porn sites, thank you. In a perfect world there would be wireless transmitter along all the highways so you could surf everywhere and not just in participating Starbucks. Lets hear from those of you who feel differently – aren’t you afraid someone will sniff your personal passwords or worse, your credit card info? I might feel differently if the range on the Airport wasn’t so darn good…
Comment posted on 12-3-2004
I have my wi-fi network open and I have my neighbor set up to use my
connection for free. I’m not afraid of anyone breaking into my
computer. They wouldn’t find anything interesting.
My friend and co-worker Russ steals wi-fi from a neighbor at home. We
were under the impression that it is legal to do so.
Comment posted on 12-3-2004
The title of the article notwithstanding, there don’t seem to be any
then the feds are gonna be knocking on
currently enforceable laws against sharing a network connection- after all
thats the definition of a network, right? There was a time when many
home service providers would specifically forbid you to have more than
one machine connected at a time in their license agreement which you
signed if you have the service in your
name. With the proliferation of “routers” of the
wired and non-wired variety it must certainly be assumed that someone is
hooking up multiple machines *someplace*. My provider, Optimum
Online – rated here has a (not) helpful note on their site “You can
attach a home network to your cable modem; however Optimum Online
does not provide technical assistance with any home networking devices.
Please contact your home networking device manufacturer for support”
however, the definition of “home network” might be open for
interperetation. I can’t find my original EULA right now, but I can’t find
anything on their site about such sharing being against their rules, and I
wonder how they would be able to find out anyway. If I leave my network
wide open, it doesn’t *mean* my neighbor is availing himself of it, and if
he’s not their customer they clearly have no right to enter his home to
check. But if you leave your network wide open in an urbanized area you
are basically asking for someone to steal your credit card info. Better to
allow certain MAC addresses for known PCs only and encrypt to the
maximum possible encryption, change the SID name, and assign
passwords. The only fear I have with sharing a connection with a known
person is that you are still legally responsible for that person’s surf habits,
and if that includes indecent snapshots of minors (don’t wanna end up in
the wrong google searches
*your* door, not his.