Conecting to Neighbours wireless???

brenmcc1

I'm sitting here at my laptop. No cables connected whatsoever yet i'm surfing the web and I dont have any wireless networking. Isit possible i've connected to my neighbours network?

Tight_Wad_5

Yes I have a wireless enabled laptop and it picks up to 5 connections from neighbouring properties.

brenmcc1

waw,

would they know i'm using it?

MickKnipfler

they can find out if they interrogate their router. There is much debate on the ethics of hijacking an open wireless connection and there was a landmark case where a bloke was done for it

superscaper

If they do you should be aware it's illegal. Someone has already been successfully prosecuted in this country for connecting to someone else's wireless router.

comeonthetic

Thats a bit harsh if you ask me. Surely the onus should be on the owner of the router to password protect it.

Fair enough if the other person has somehow managed to hack there way into using it but if not then its there fault.

Chippy_Minton

If the router logs your computer's name and the name identifies you, then yes, they could look at the log and see that you are/were connected. Otherwise if your computer name is fairly anonymous then they would only know that someone nearby was connected (by the MAC address or computer name), but not exactly who.

Beware though - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm for someone who was prosecuted for this.

brenmcc1

I genuinely didnt know it happened. I was running my internet through a cable and when i unplugged the internet was still working. If its the neighbour i think it is he'll see teh funny side when I let him know tomorrow

superscaper

comeonthetic wrote:

Thats a bit harsh if you ask me. Surely the onus should be on the owner of the router to password protect it.

Fair enough if the other person has somehow managed to hack there way into using it but if not then its there fault.

I think the law treats it as stealing bandwidth without permission so it doesn't matter if you didn't need to hack into it. I'm not saying the law is fair especially if you have equipment that connects to available networks automatically by default, but that seems to be the law.

brenmcc1

also, as stated above. Surely you should have password protection with such a system...

:username:

If someone is stupid enough not to secure their network then its fair game!

People don't even password protect thier router set-up access page......madness!!

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