What's the basic security issue with an unsecured home router?

Be a good neighbor, suggest they secure it.

Sure, and if he leaves his lawnmower out in the yard, that's just an invitation to use it, right? Or perhaps a better analogy would be leaving his TV on and using your remote to watch premium channels. After all, he's already paying for it, right?

It's called theft of service. Sure, you can 'get away with it'. Until you can't, then you're stuck being the thief in the neighborhood.

Yes, to allow the piece of mind to know what they're paying for isn't being stolen by others.

What, all this just to troll for this nonsense? Find better uses for your time, I'm sure that To Do list is calling...

Hey, I think the OP didn't sound right asking the question but I think the question, in and of itself, is not a bad one to ask. I myself, would like to understand exactly why we go through the efforts of securing our networks and precisely what types of things can be done against us if we don't.

To the OP : I think you are asking your question in the wrong way and in the wrong place.

Sorry. I just don't see why I go to the trouble to secure my router if all it does is allow my closest neighbors to get bad bars of service.

It allows them to masquerade as you, or at least masquerade as a paying customer of your ISP.

Once he's connected to your router, if he accesses the Internet, he has your IP address.

Further, if you have any PCs on an internal LAN, he has access to all of them, limited only by whatever security you've activated on them, if any.

Sigh. I've been on a futile compaign to ship wireless routers in a configuration that is secure by default. Search this newsgroup for "secure by default" for various rants on the subject.

I sometimes use my neighbors connection for testing my router security. It gives me easy access to the WAN (internets) side of the router, where I can check for vulnerabilities.

I'm never still, moving all the time, when I'm wondering. If I ever stop, I'll be in trouble.

Yes. There's no established way advertise an open wireless access point. There are organizations that help:

In general, a wireless router, deployed in its default configuration, with the default SSID and no password, is a sign of ineptitude, not an invitation.

A good test is to reverse the situation. If you were to install a wireless home router, and didn't bother reading the instructions on how to secure the router, would you want the neighborhood using your connection?

Yes. Several reasons to do it wrong:

1. Failure to read and follow the printed instructions.
2. Failure to understand the technical risks.
3. Failure to visualize the possible exploits.
4. Failure to appreciate the legal exposure.
5. Bad advice from ISP, friends, and neighbors.
6. Haste in setting it up.

It really depends on your technical expertise and imagination. The problem is that your definition of "mischief" may not be the same as your neighbors (or mine). To some, any unauthorized use is mischief.

Mostly testing the security of your firewall from the internet side. There are other ways to do this, using web based tools, but it's sometime easier to do it all yourself.

I don't really know the details of one's security exposure with open wireless, but for some reason those who do aren't making it very clear right now.

I can imagine a couple of bad things that can happen when wireless is unsecured:

1) You are letting strangers into your local network. It's like letting them in your house. They now have a much better chance of getting onto your pc if they are in your LAN, behind your router's firewall and NAT. This includes any file-sharing that you may have enabled. Depending on your os and it's settings, they may be able to install programs, trojans, keyloggers etc. From there, your identity can be stolen, and you can be robbed directly as well. 2) Since wireless is unsecured, they can sniff your packets and steal passwords etc as well? More theft of identity and data. 3)what they said about using your ip address for nefarious activities. Like stealing your car to rob a bank. Not good for you.

OK guys, correct me, but at least the OP is getting the idea. Keep the bad guys on the other side of your firewall, basically.

I'm not using wireless at home currently, but when I get a new access point, I will certainly secure it. This is not because I'm afraid that anyone will "hack" my machines, but simply because I don't want to share my bandwidth. Securing a modern access point is done in maximum 5 minutes, and is pretty much straight forward.

Bruce Schneier has some interesting points in his blog though:

-- Erik The wise man does at once what the fool does finally