Does anybody else allow their neighbours to use their wifi?

Jacks_xxx

I'm thinking about the ramifications of doing this. Is there a downside?

alanwsg

Depends on your neighbours, I guess.
I have swapped wifi passwords with mine, they are on Virgin, I'm on plusnet: now we both have an alternative if either network fails.

diable

If the download loads of stuff off piratebay then yes, do you ask them to contribute?

Col7777

I would do it as long as we both shared the bill.

hippey

One very VERY big downside is that if you are sharing passwords your friendly neighbours could have access to your computers (if you share drives etc..) and could well get you in the sticky stuff if they choose to visit more exotic sites than you, and by that I'm not meaning downloading music!

It could be some very awkward questions if your are accused of viewing !!!!!! / uploading images that your neighbour did whilst connected to your router, sometimes you really don't know people!

Jacks_xxx

We don't "officially" do this yet, but I'm thinking of suggesting to Hubby that we do. Our connection works in three other homes on our street that I know of.

There's been a lot of redundancy around here and job hunting and moneysaving is easier online, and teenagers need to be online for school... we're paying for it anyway...

I take the point about liability for what they do with it.

What about bandwidth - is that going to be an issue of we've got two or three other households using our connection?

jayme1

take to note that the only way WPA2 security can be 'hacked' is if the hacker has the PSK (password)

the only real way to be safe if you share your wifi is to use a router that has specific 'guest' networking ie it has 2 hotspots in it one main and one guest.
if you only have one wifi network and you share it, it puts at risk any shared drives, shared itunes libraries, any DLNA media streaming ect.

personally giving out access to your router is a pretty big security risk IMO, esp for people who dont know fully how to 'lock' down a network - which sort of defeats the purpose of using a network for anymore media streaming ect.

also most routers can only have 8 or 10 people connected at a time (more expensive routers can have 50+) so if you share with another house it can fill up quick, to a point where you might not be able to get on it.

jackieb

We're signed up with BT FON, so anyone else who has signed up with it can access ours and vice versa. We've had it for years and never had any problems with it and we have 3 laptops, 2 desktops and various games consoles so there's nearly always someone online. My husband originally signed up for it as he worked away from home, and there wasn't the same free wi-fi hotspots as there are now.

onetomany

i let my friend across the road use mine no probs at all as it dosnt cost anymore

kwikbreaks

jackieb wrote: »

We're signed up with BT FON, so anyone else who has signed up with it can access ours and vice versa. We've had it for years and never had any problems with it and we have 3 laptops, 2 desktops and various games consoles so there's nearly always someone online. My husband originally signed up for it as he worked away from home, and there wasn't the same free wi-fi hotspots as there are now.

FON is rather different - the user has to log in so they are "known" and their connection is tunnelled through the FON system so they have a different IP from you.

In short a FON user..
. Cannot access your network and personal data.
. Has limited bandwidth available to them.
. Is separately identifiable from you so there is no chance of you being accused of visiting kiddy-fiddler websites (unless you do).
. Won't be a breach of your T&C

Why risk all the possible problems that sharing your BB could bring?

angelheart-xx

the only problem for me is they didnt just borrow my wi-fi,they borrow everything else right down to bare essentials,and use of hose phone or mobile,so i stopped it but not a day goes by without them knocking to borrow something else.