Does anybody else allow their neighbours to use their wifi?

Col7777

angelheart-xx wrote: »

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.

Where do you live, I might come knocking, it will make a change from the regular neighbour borrowing?

Seriously I had a neighbour borrow some butter and they returned it with bits of toast stuck to it, needless to say I threw it in the bin.

JJ_Egan

Thee downside would be if the other used committed a crime or such when you your connection .
The IP /address of the connection used is yours not theirs .You would have to prove you did not do it .

jje

Jacks_xxx

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Thee downside would be if the other used committed a crime or such when you your connection .
The IP /address of the connection used is yours not theirs .You would have to prove you did not do it .

jje

If it was downloading wouldn't the downloaded stuff be on their computer not mine?

And wouldn't things like their passwords and chat room posts etc be saved in their hard drive not mine which would show where the crime had been committed?

(sorry to sound so non techie and thank you for bringing this up!)

alanwsg

We don't [quite] live in a police state yet!

You don't ever have to prove that you didn't commit a crime, the onus is on the prosecution to prove you DID commit a crime. If your connection was shared between several households, that job would be arguably more difficult.

Indeed, tech & law-savvy people who are going to download dodgy material may deliberately leave their network unsecured so they can deny responsibility. I think the yanks call it "plausible deniability".

jayme1

wasn't there talk that the wifi owner is resposible for all activity on the network? infact I think it was included in the digital economy act, and there has already been someone fined in germany for not using security on their wifi network.

so using that law all they have to do is find the IP address that used the illegal site/download (which would be you) and you would be responsible and the subject of the fines.

kwikbreaks

No doubt in most cases where WiFi passwords are disclosed to neighbours nothing untoward is done but there is always the chance. Why take the risk of being suspected which in itself would hardly be a pain free experience?

alanwsg

There was talk but, in the UK that's all there's been so far.
In the recent ACS-Law affair, they were claiming that their victims couldn't use an unsecured network as a defence, but no cases have been to the UK courts yet.

As you said, I think in Germany it's actually illegal to operate an unsecured network in the first place.

Jacks_xxx

alanwsg wrote: »

We don't [quite] live in a police state yet!

You don't ever have to prove that you didn't commit a crime, the onus is on the prosecution to prove you DID commit a crime. If your connection was shared between several households, that job would be arguably more difficult.

Indeed, tech & law-savvy people who are going to download dodgy material may deliberately leave their network unsecured so they can deny responsibility. I think the yanks call it "plausible deniability".

That's what I thought the situation was too.

Thanks for posting.

Anon

You may find that it breaches your contract with your ISP (but not sure how they would find out!). To save it being open access, you could limit access to specific MAC addresses (their specific computers) so that the network remains more secure.

The posters above have identified some of the risks - with the throttling of broadband now (slowing speeds if used too much) if you use it too much or breach the cap even with supposed "unlimited" packages then you may risk not being able to access yourself (check the limits on your package).

It is a very kind offer for your neighbours though.

Anon

spud17

What's to stop the neighbours passing on the key to all their friends/visitors?