To pirate or not to pirate?

i didn't even know you COULD do that.

wow.

but, it seems to me, if all you have to do is set up your own equipment, what's wrong with catching a signal being shnazzed through the air?

No, it really isn't OK - its theft, and can be subject to prosecution and penalties.

However, security ultimately is up to the user - any idiot that fails to secure a wireless network is asking for piggybackers ... that doesn't excuse piracy, but it renders folks who enable it through doing nothing to protect themselves from it complicit in the theft.

Ok, so I feel like it's theft. I didn't like it when people used my wireless, so I set up a wep key.

But, when I tell people I don't feel ok using the neighbor's wireless, they look at me funny and with incredulity.

You know...I hadn't considered that. I was under the foolish impression that if you were in an area where wireless signals were, that if you had your own connection, you could use them.

wow. talk about ignorance.

You buy a service which provides you with a connection at your house. If you have a laptop and are mobile - don't want to be tied to your desk - you buy a router to shoot the signal wirelessly for pickup by your computer. It's a short range, but in the city, people live really close to one another.

Cambridge is supposed to have a city-wide wireless connection up by now, but I dunno where it is!

I say who cares.

When I moved in here, it took a week or two to get my internet setup. I piggy-backed off someone else, but I have to be in a certain spot to get a decent connection.

If I had a perfect connection off someone else's...not sure what I'd do.

Something to consider - connecting your machine to someone else's network connects your machine to that network ... leaving it vulnerable to exploits originating within that network. While its not alltogether common, and its pretty much, as far as I know, an urban thing, some folks with less-than charitable intent will purposely run an open, unsecured wireless network, specifically to gain access to other folk's computers.

I too did not know you could do this?


but, I have to admit my first responce was...



So what? A few days? Pppbbtthh.. ride the net wave..

what is a WEP key anyway?

Some people leave their wireless open for the simple fact they want to share it. Even going so far as to install high gain antennas to give their signal more strength.

I had a friend that put an antenna outside his window to give better access for his neighbors.

Wired Equivalent [Privacy - an older, not particularly secure method of preventing unauthorized access to a wireless network. Its better than nothing, but its easilly defeated. A newer, far more secure protocol, is WPA2

Everyone steals Wifi. I have been known to sit outside a hotel with my laptop just to steal the Wifi. I have heard that people have been arrested for doing this but that seems absurd. If you decide to water your lawn and turn on your sprinkler, and the run-off travels across the sidewalk, off of your property, and enters the drain, and then I come along and start to collect that water and put it into a bucket, you can't convict me for stealing your water. I never entered your property, never took a step onto your lawn, I simply never trespassed. And if your signal travels into my house shouldn't I have you arrested for trespassing?

What about WiFi?

When I am at work, my PDA picks up two different connections.

Am I stealing those?

However, you are transmitting traffic in return. It also requires a direct action on your part to connect to another WiFi connection.





I imagine a lot of the consequences of stealing the bandwidth would be what you do with it.

Put simply, if you are using an internet connection without the connection owner's knowledge and/or authorization, you are in violation of law, you are stealing something belonging to someone else, something someone else has paid for, someone else's personal private property. Some wireless connections are open to the public, effectively granting authorization to any who care to use that connection.

Unauthorized piggybacking on a private wireless connection is violation of law, just as would be stealing a cable or satellite signal, or using someone else's phone or electric service without authorization. It doesn't matter that its easy, or that its common, its still illegal, and it is unethical.

Nick's lawnwatering analogy simply does not hold water - the FCC is pretty clear about that, and so are most ISP's - an ISP determining an account is being used contrary to their terms, knowingly or not - generally the account owner's specific, exclusive personal or business use - can, and often will, terminate that service.

While its been a sorta low-level, background, "not much done about it" sorta thing, that is changing, and changing rapidly. Do whatchya wanna - just understand there may be consequences you won't like.

Keep your frequencies out of my house and I will no longer steal them. Of course, I'm also the kind of guy who has used Hotel pools when I'm not a guest at the hotel -- so long as there is no sign saying "pool for room occupants only".

As I said, Nick, do whatchya wanna, but be aware inconvenience may ensue. The matter of unauthorized interception/use of wireless internet connections pretty much falls under the same laws as pertain to unauthorized interception of cable/satellite TV services and cellular communications. The issue is getting more and more official attention, a circumstance bound to increase, and in fact in many instances has been treated as a Federal crime. Folks have been subject to penalties including but not limited to fines and loss of their computers. Its your call; don't say you haven't been advised - take the risk knowing there is, even if as yet not statistically significant, real potential downside.

Well, none of the connections I have here available to me illegally are any good. They are better than dial up and I am using them only for email and a2k and only for a couple hours a day. I'll have to live with the consequences. I am very concerned about the piracy issue, I hat ethat I am doing this. But, I will continue to do so until my dsl is established.

Now. Why does it take up to 2 weeks for verizon to move my dsl across the street?

Dunno, if Verizon DSL is available in the surrounding neighborhood, why it should take that long. Can't think of any good reason it should. I s'pose its possible the copper connecting your residence to the phone system needs upgrading - possible, but not real likely, even less likely if Verizon also is your telephone provider. Assuming the local wiring is up to snuff, "turning on" DSL should more or less amount to simply that, turning it on, whether, depending on the specifics of the system in use, that involves flipping a switch, moving a jumper, or just (as is quite common) a few clicks on a keyboard. You might consider asking them why; only they know.

Now, frankly, I wouldn't worry too much about getting busted for the sorta piggybacking you're doing, especially if the signal you're snarfing belongs to a user functionally unable to tell you're there. However, if your bandwidth useage (any connection has only so much bandwidth) impacted that user's service sufficiently to cause that user to ask his provider to look into why his system from time to time suddenly seemed unacceptably slow ...


On the other hand, try to tap into my wireless network, and, depending on my mood, you could wind up getting very surprised ... and very inconvenienced ... I can be real mean to a computer I can connect to, if I wanna be