Money Moral Dilemma: Is it cheeky to ask to 'rent' my neighbour's Wi-Fi?

jifster

Simple answer is don't. You will simply be jeopardising the integrity of the security of your internal network. Your new neighbours may not be hackers but you have no idea of the status of the devices they are attaching to your network. Troy Hunt, a well respected IT security analyst, has a good write-up on this very subject.
I am unable to post a link at this stage so simply Google 'Troy hunt home network'

DavidP24

jifster wrote: »

Simple answer is don't. You will simply be jeopardising the integrity of the security of your internal network. Your new neighbours may not be hackers but you have no idea of the status of the devices they are attaching to your network. Troy Hunt, a well respected IT security analyst, has a good write-up on this very subject.
I am unable to post a link at this stage so simply Google 'Troy hunt home network'

If we had that attitude we would become extinct because we would never have sex because of all risks of STD’s.

Let us be clear, if a hacker wants access to your wifi they are not going to ask, they are going to TAKE. Wireless is not secure and given a bit of time in proximity your signal can be scanned and the password determined.

Now you have to consider what is the likelihood of your new neighbour downloading dodgy stuff, but also bear in mind that if they WERE nefarious in their activities they would invariably use a VPN, so their traffic would be encrypted and not visible to your ISP or authorities. They would do this because even if they were a sleeper cell they would not want to bring authorities to their street as even if people knocked on your door initially it would be clear only people in range could piggy back.

Now remember the OP “Money Moral Dilemma: Is it cheeky to ask to 'rent' my neighbour's Wi-Fi?”
I do not think so; you are asking to RENT it so you are offering to PAY for what you use.
I have seen people in forums having to wait 6 weeks + for a connection. Considering the cost of mobile data is so prohibitive it is entirely reasonable to ask a neighbour if they want to help.

It is also entirely reasonable for the person being asked to take precautions, put limits on that connection and ask the neighbour to pay that cost, e.g. to pay for a router that allowed such management to be done. I used a buffalo AC router to share my wifi, I put a login on it so I could use the logs to indemnify myself in case they accessed anything dodgy, I also used Norton filter built into the router to set access level to block dodgy sites.

It is also reasonable to decline if you have limited traffic.

The easiest deterrent is to log into your router and hide your SSID, that way the average user will not see your wifi so they will not ask. It is generally a good practice to not broadcast the SSID as it does make it easier for hackers who will choose the signal with the best quality, they can still find your wifi with the right tools but why make it easy.

stmartinsdiver

Simply because you would be on a shared WiFi link does not mean your neighbours could automatically access your files or vice versa - depending on the sytems you can set things up so neither of you can see the other ones data or you can opt to share some or all of your files - not something to suggest to a new neighbour! As long as they don't have a capping limit and the line has the spare bandwidth to allow sharing without slowing things down too much then why not ask but expect them to say 'no' as they probably won't know whether it could be done safely. Bear in mind too that they could lock you out at any time or turn their router off at will so leaving you without any network access.

lisa110rry

It was absolutely crystal clear to me from the day our neighbours moved in that they were honest, reliable people of good character. I would have allowed them to use our wifi from day one, however it was some years later that they asked, whilst they swopped over from one supplier to another. With two school children a connection was necessary for homework. I was delighted to be able to help.

gloriouslyhappy

DavidP24 wrote: »

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I probably would not ask a neighbour, if it was that important to me I would hack into their wireles .

Hack into their wireless? What a cheek, what's next, their online banking?!!!!!!!!!!!!

duchy

Absolutely not would be my reply to any stranger who wanted access to the broadband connection in my name.

They could be downloading child !!!!!! , they could be accessing sites linked to radicalisation anything and when the knock comes on my door me saying "oh it wasn't me it must be my neighbour" isn't going to save me from the authorities taking a very keen interest in me.
A local headmaster , pillar of the community, church every Sunday, married, delightful teenage kids and a nice and kind man from my interactions with him was recently jailed for downloading child !!!!!!. Like Lisa I'd have said from day one of knowing him that he'd be fine to share my connection with ...... yet he wasn't. You really don't know.

Someone compared it to sex and STDs ......well yeah. I don't sleep with people unless I know they aren't a risk to my sexual health .....likewise I only share my wifi with people I know won't abuse it and risk causing me damage. Random stranger .....no chance.

I work in the industry and I often get calls from customers wanting to change their wireless password because they've given it to a neighbour and later regretted it.

duchy

teddysmum wrote: »

Our neighbouring semi is being re-furbished for sale and neither the previous owner nor the neighbour to the other side has ever had an internet connection. We have an obvious Virgin box to the front and Sky dish to the back (but neither of these services), so I wonder if the people who buy next door will ask us for a piggy back.

My excuse will be that our ADSL can only just cope with the two of us using it, so cannot accommodate anyone else. (Especially as we have no idea who these people are whether they are honest )

Presumably the houses have phone lines though. That's all you need , BB is ordered at the same time as the phone, Most people would either order ahead (easy to do if the home is unoccupied) or just use 4g whilst waiting the week or two to get connected. Expecting to piggyback new neighbours is neither usual or common. You are very unlikely to need an excuse

DavidP24

No No, I already got a copy of their bank card!!

boliston

my worry would be having my allowance wiped out as i have a 100gb/month download limit and have to pay for any top ups over that - also what about compromised devices that could easily get your connection cut off? my partners sky box was infected by a bot that was attacking other networks and i got cut off till i figured how to firewall the sky box to stop the attacks

DavidP24

Well if you were on any sort of limit you would say no, but do you think it would be cheeky of them to ask?