sharing wifi

neilmcl

pramsay13 wrote: »

It's a sad day when people expect the worst.
Sometimes I leave an upstairs window open but I don't assume everyone is walking around with a ladder looking to gain entry to steal things.
Sometimes I leave my car unlocked but I don't assume everyone is looking for the chance to open the door and rake through my glove compartment.
I could go on.

Please do, it's quite entertaining how naive you're being

RandomQ

I think each person needs to make an informed decision, based on who is asking, how long for and what plan one has.

First thing to do is delay decision, deferring to a partner or saying you need to check how much you are using on your plan, so will get back to them.

Then look at router for guest network, create SSID and different password than you would usually use.

Tell the neighbour that you (or partner/child) has setup a guest network for 30 days, remembering to disable it.

If you have already lent someone your password and want to stop, simply change your SSID and password via the admin console of your router, attach all your devices to the new wifi, then set the new SSID to be hidden.

If and when they say it is not working simply say you changed supplier and are on a fixed data plan so unable to help anymore, but you suggest they use a hotspot such as BTwifi-with-fon.

I do not anticipate PCPlod will be coming by anytime soon or ever, except if it happened to be a terrorist or serious hacker which is pretty unlikely.

Even if you do share, the logs on your router will show connections and Mac address, so very easy to refer them to the person. So no difficulty at all in proving it wasn't you, nobody can PROVE a negative and CPS would only prosecute when they have a reasonable chance to prove guilt.

An old family friend is in her eighties, she has had letter from BT they had a complaint saying she downloaded copyrighted material, she would not have a clue how to do that, she did nothing and heard no more from BT. I checked her router, no evidence of other devices using her router, her password was the secure one issued by BT.

I do not think anyone who needs to share wifi is a scum bag, everyone has a tolerance for law breaking, for some reason forums tend to attract people who get anally retentive about things, maybe because they follow those rules even though they would rather not. They often exagerate risk and suggest the sky will fall if any risk is taken.

Make your own informed decision.

Robisere

Pramsay, I thought I had given a description in Post #23, of the kind of people who are likely to burst your bubble. I don't live in a town or city: I live in a quiet, beautiful village, within a cul de sac. The kind of trouble posted here by quite a few people, can happen anywhere, to anyone.

Sad, but true. Take precautions.

Chino

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

If you get a call from PC plod saying we've detected you downloading pirate movies, illegal !!!!!!, or worse, then you'd have trouble proving it wasn't you.

The burden of proof would be on PC plod to prove that you had downloaded the content; plod being able to prove that your internet connection was used to download content isn't the same as proving that it was you who downloaded the content.

macman

David_Aston wrote: »

Thanks for the further replies. It is true, that whenever we visit friends and family, almost the first thing we do, is to get onto their wifi where possible.
I suppose this is pretty much the same thing. I take the point that BT, Virgin, Sky or whoever would much prefer users to be joining them, and paying the dosh!

No, it's not the same thing: your guests are within your house and presumably can be trusted. Your neighbours are not.
And it's a clear breach of every ISP's T and C's.

macman

pramsay13 wrote: »

It's a sad day when people expect the worst.
Sometimes I leave an upstairs window open but I don't assume everyone is walking around with a ladder looking to gain entry to steal things.
Sometimes I leave my car unlocked but I don't assume everyone is looking for the chance to open the door and rake through my glove compartment.
I could go on.

But when one does, you'll not be upset when your insurer refuses the claim due to you not taking the most basic precautions against theft?

RandomQ

The sky is falling The sky is falling The sky is falling

Honestly!

[Deleted User]

David_Aston wrote: »

It is true, that whenever we visit friends and family, almost the first thing we do, is to get onto their wifi where possible.

This isn't intended to be a personal dig but we live in strange times when this is true.

AndyPix

RandomQ wrote: »

Even if you do share, the logs on your router will show connections and Mac address, so very easy to refer them to the person. So no difficulty at all in proving it wasn't you, nobody can PROVE a negative and CPS would only prosecute when they have a reasonable chance to prove guilt.
.

Wouldnt it be nice if that were true ..
However the first thing im going to do one im in your wifi is sniff a currently connected mac address (your computer) and then type :


macchanger -m (your mac address) wlan1


Thats it, now i have your mac address cloned and i am oficially you

RandomQ

Well it does not matter because 99.99% of the population are not terrorist or dark web enthusiasts and in the unlikely event that my neighbour was one, it would be easy for me to point the finger in the other unlikely event of a police actually making enquiries.

The idea that all out neighbours run linux and are savvy with network commands is a joke.

You would have been better to suggest they used a free VPN

As I said, make a decsion for each personal circumstance you are presented with.

The Sky is Falling is still The Sky is Falling even if you wrap it in Linux commands.

I do not really give a damn about terms and conditions or the paranoid.

I use shared wifi and I share wifi, I have even helped neighbours share their wifi with other neighbours.

With unreasonable pricing and the end of real competition in Broadband it was inevitable that people would cut their costs by sharing.