Other people using your Broadband (Panorama 15th March)

Idiophreak

anewhope wrote: »

Chosing a better level of encryption gives you significantly stronger protection than hiding the SSID and implimenting MAC filtering, which let's be honest is a two minute job to get around.

But it's two minutes for someone with the knowhow *and* the inclination. It's the second one most people lack.

Two things 1) A lot of people who're connecting to unsecured wireless networks might not even know they're doing it these days. 2) If someone's driving around looking for some wireless to nick, if your house has a WEP on, they'll just keep driving.

There's a stark divide between people that will nick some broadband if it's going free and those that will actively hack a secured (however weakly) network.

Dubfreak

Idiophreak wrote: »

But it's two minutes for someone with the knowhow *and* the inclination. It's the second one most people lack.

Two things 1) A lot of people who're connecting to unsecured wireless networks might not even know they're doing it these days. 2) If someone's driving around looking for some wireless to nick, if your house has a WEP on, they'll just keep driving.

There's a stark divide between people that will nick some broadband if it's going free and those that will actively hack a secured (however weakly) network.

Notable point about drivebys but you are missing the obvious threat which is the neighbours accross the road with the teenager studying computing, or the flat above who doesnt want to pay for the connection, both have the time and the inclination, it is therefore advisable to implement all of the suggestions listed above. If you dont have the knowhow then ask someone who does.

Lil306

Wireless Security is also another important factor to always consider. Obviously you can't guarantee ultra-secure connections for the home users, but WPA/WPA2 is usually enough to deter most people except those extremely determined to break into your connection or people who wardrive, and generally you will find people who are looking to break into wireless won't really bother with WPA and would move onto an open one or WEP based networks.

I believe you can be held accountable for certain illegal actions which have been carried out by people jumping on your wireless connection (mainly because it comes from your IP with the ISP)....

Anyway, I'd look into activating security because of these
a) Security, less chance of dodgy people using your network resources
b) Speed, more people using resources, slower connections
c) User awareness, it makes you more IT Savvy if you understand the technology and how it can benefit you

Personally I feel the most important thing to activate wireless security for is the people using the connection. If you're on a limited connection such as one like BT Option 1, which permits are 10GB download. If you get someone logging on your wireless connection who uses P2P without you knowing, then they could potentially download 100's of GBs of data per month which can leave you with a hefty bill

I seem to recall one instance on another forum somewhere. Someone used that persons wireless, and the person using it assumed it was unmetered and downloaded around 800GB of data over a month (movies etc). The person who owned the connection was responsible for the bill and ended up having to pay something like £500 or more back to the ISP for the data transmitted!!!

PasturesNew

I used to nick a neighbour's signal when I was staying with relatives that had no internet. Now I have a dongle so don't need to.

Lil306

PasturesNew wrote: »

I used to nick a neighbour's signal when I was staying with relatives that had no internet. Now I have a dongle so don't need to.

Not kidding, I absolutely love my dongle. £15 and guaranteed internet no matter where I go, only thing Vodafone is good for is they pretty much have full UK coverage

Speeds aren't the best but better than 3G at least and still good for websurfing all the time.

kwikbreaks

Lil306 wrote: »

Not kidding, I absolutely love my dongle. £15 and guaranteed internet no matter where I go, only thing Vodafone is good for is they pretty much have full UK coverage

Speeds aren't the best but better than 3G at least and still good for websurfing all the time.

Must be a different Vodafone from the one my contract is with then....

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/mobile-broadband-coverage.html

Lil306

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Must be a different Vodafone from the one my contract is with then....

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/mobile-broadband-coverage.html

Yeah, mines special because I bought it

Nearly all mobile dongles will have coverage because they will go through 3G then GSM if available networks aren't there, so you may not get full speed coverage with any network but you normally always get some form of coverage...

Doesn't mean I like Vodafone, I hate them :rotfl:

kwikbreaks

I use mine more than my home ADSL. Coverage is patchy to non-existant outside of cities. Last year I spent some time on the south coast - not even GPRS in a lot of locations there.

Lil306

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I use mine more than my home ADSL. Coverage is patchy to non-existant outside of cities. Last year I spent some time on the south coast - not even GPRS in a lot of locations there.

Pretty shameful on Vodafone's part.

Im sure it will be covered eventually

jamespir

more political bull from the goverment .........hold on theres a man outside with a laptop and one hand down his trousers oh !!!!!! hes accessed my !!!!!! collection