For those who think using any "open" wifi is OK...

tomsolomon

fwor wrote: »

You make no reference to community wireless networks, which are typically mesh-type networks that are voluntarily provided as a service to neighbours and other people in general:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_community_network

So... If I'm sitting in my car outside a house where a community access node is situated, but have inadvertently connected to the wireless access point of a neighbour, which is "open" but not published as being available to others, am I breaking the law?

To cut a long story short::::doh:

I have no idea m8....:D

All I know is if you dont want people to steal your bandwidth, make it secure :wall:

fwor

tomsolomon wrote: »

To cut a long story short::::doh:

I have no idea m8....:D

My guess is that I probably wouldn't be breaking the law, as there's no intent to steal, but what do I know about legal stuff?

I must confess, I'm one of those lazy people, in that I've never bothered to change from WEP to WAP. However, as I never use it (all my kit is wired onto a Gig Ethernet switch), it's probably safe enough.

superscaper

fwor wrote: »

My guess is that I probably wouldn't be breaking the law, as there's no intent to steal, but what do I know about legal stuff?

I must confess, I'm one of those lazy people, in that I've never bothered to change from WEP to WAP. However, as I never use it (all my kit is wired onto a Gig Ethernet switch), it's probably safe enough.

How do you prove your intent? You still ended up, in your hypothetical, stealing. I'm not sure of anything in law that allows for "accidental" theft. Your particular scenario hasn't as far as I know been tested as a defence in court and there's now been a fair few people convicted so we'll probably soon enough end up with someone defending their actions with such a reason. So it'd be interesting. Similar thing could be said of my iPaq, out of the box it is set by default to connect to any available network so merely by switching it on I could end up connecting to unsecured networks which may be legitimate if they're the community networks or other hotspots.

Fliss_Harper

tomsolomon wrote: »

The sort of people who leave their internet unencrypted are usually lazy, stupid, computer illiterate, or just to much of a skin flint to get someone in to sort it out.....
Unfortunately they are also the first people to complain when their bandwidth is being stolen.
If you want to be lazy, stupid, computer illiterate or to much of a skin flint to get your wireless sorted out, then I have no sympathy if someone steals your bandwidth, so just shut up and stop complaining.

ITS YOUR OWN FAULT

Exactly! If you can't protct your wifi, learn more! Educate yourselves!

alexjohnson wrote: »

Obviously Daily Mail readers can feel free to worry about those armies of paedophiles just waiting to leap on your network.

Justin_Scotland

alexjohnson wrote: »

Originally Posted by Justin_Scotland
This is a message for those people that leave there wifi networks open.

Dont.... People reading there own emails on your internet connection is the least of your worries.


Such as?

Its not just your broadband connection I would be looking at. Might take a joyride through your files on your pc and install a keylogger so I dont need to packet sniff what your sending out.

As if you havent read the wifi security guide in the manual to secure your wifi you probably havent looked up the words free firewall or pc security on google.

Tozer

tomsolomon wrote: »

The sort of people who leave their internet unencrypted are usually lazy, stupid, computer illiterate, or just to much of a skin flint to get someone in to sort it out.....
Unfortunately they are also the first people to complain when their bandwidth is being stolen.
If you want to be lazy, stupid, computer illiterate or to much of a skin flint to get your wireless sorted out, then I have no sympathy if someone steals your bandwidth, so just shut up and stop complaining.

ITS YOUR OWN FAULT

I think that is really harsh. Some people simply don't know how to enable the security - particularly those who did not grow up with it - but are not lazy or stupid. Computer illiterate? Maybe but thats not a crime.

Lets face it, IT is baffling to some people. I'm ok with a computer, but when I get something saying "Fatal exception error 00EEXXXXXXXXXxxx" how the heck am I supposd to know what it means?

The point is, some people are intimidated by systems. If ISPs made it really, really clear what to do, then there would be far less of a problem. The fact that there are so many unsecured wifi networks says to me that it is not simple enough to secure.

tomsolomon

Tozer wrote: »

The point is, some people are intimidated by systems. If ISPs made it really, really clear what to do, then there would be far less of a problem. The fact that there are so many unsecured wifi networks says to me that it is not simple enough to secure.

Its easy enough if people can be bothered to go and find the information both online and in the documentation provided with the equipment they buy.

Just a simple matter of changing a few settings. A few clicks of the mouse is all it takes most of the time.

Who honestly reads the instruction manual when they buy something new.... And for the sake of your personal information and your tidy little nest egg in the bank, its more than worth it to take the time to do a little homework.

But if you want to lose everything you have, who am I to say dont bother securing your home network....:D

odowdchr

tomsolomon wrote: »

The sort of people who leave their internet unencrypted are usually lazy, stupid, computer illiterate, or just to much of a skin flint to get someone in to sort it out.....
Unfortunately they are also the first people to complain when their bandwidth is being stolen.
If you want to be lazy, stupid, computer illiterate or to much of a skin flint to get your wireless sorted out, then I have no sympathy if someone steals your bandwidth, so just shut up and stop complaining.

ITS YOUR OWN FAULT

The thing is....if all that is true then how do they know they're being piggybacked and how did these guys get caught?

BritBrat

What was those free routers that you could get a while back?

But you had to leave your wireless connection open for a year for others on the system to use for free.

If people are so dumb to leave it open how can they complain when someone enters it.

Leave you door open and get robbed, yes it would be illegal but you will not be insured as it was your own fault.

superscaper

odowdchr wrote: »

The thing is....if all that is true then how do they know they're being piggybacked and how did these guys get caught?

Don't know about the recent cases but the previous cases is was nothing to do with noticing anything on the network but spotting suspicious behaviour of people, i.e. bloke stopping outside house and getting out laptop. Doesn't take a rocket scientist no matter how bad you are with wifi networking.