Hey Neighbor, Stop Piggybacking on My Wireless

While installing Internet service for the local cable company I noticed that many college students purposely left their network open creating a shared Wi-Fi network, and considering that Athen's Georgia has a large Collage campus with a Wi-Fi network. Making Athens Georgia one of the most friendly Wi-Fi spots in the nation.

How is someone to know if you left your network open to share, or because you were not a) intelligent enough, or b) to lazy to secure your network, or c) Left it open to share your network connection?

Robert Miller

You can't know this for sure.

However you can assume that if someone has an open network and kept the default SSID (typically LinkSys, default, Netgear, 2Wire, etc), then they are a) or b), and you should not use the network, as they probably didn't intentionally leave it open.

You saw in that article that many people just take the router out of the box, connect it, and it works; they don't change anything. If they were intelligent enough to change the SSID, then perhaps you can assume that they were also intelligent enough to enable WEP or WPA if they didn't want others using their network. Of course there is no way of knowing this for sure.

Practice safe wireless. Always use VPN when connecting to an unknown wireless network (as a bonus, using VPN gets rid of advertisements on advertising supported free wireless networks).

Sometimes people change the SSID to something indicative like "HOTSPOT" or whatever. Sometimes they configure it to take you to a webpage when you first connect. But other than that, there's no way to be sure. If you're not sure, you shouldn't use it unless you can find the physical owner. Mark McIntyre

A convention that I've seen around where I live, which I also adopted, is to suffix your SSID name with "_OPEN" if you are keeping it open by choice.

But, yeah, I'm with you -- there really is no standard way to tell. Too bad the 802.11 specs didn't incorporate a "flag" that could be used to announce if an open SSID is left open intentionally.

Be careful now that we are moving into spring when riding around in Athens. You never know when you might be stopped at a traffic light with the windows down and some one could toss a diploma in the window.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

I admit to have piggybacked on several occasions when traveling.

I usually try to improve my hosts' situation as I depart.

For example, not only do these people leave their networks open, but they also leave their router admin password on the factory setting. So usually as I leave I try to tune up their router. At one location I saw that my in-law's neighbor's border was visiting p*rn sites late at night, so I took the liberty of blocking access to these sites. Can't have our neighbor locked up for harboring a criminal, can we.

Internet p0rn in most jurisdictions in the US at least is not illegal. But nice touch tweaking their set ups. I've been tempted more then once to turn on security for them, but manage to restrain myself.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

How do you turn on security without knocking all the client computers off the air?

Disallow the router admin access via the wireless connection.

I thought kiddy p*rn was; but then what do I know? Never touch the stuff personally.

What do you mean by fundamentalism? I'm sure the government (public) schools feel this way when they teach math, science, and reading / writing. What do you think fundamentalism is?

Set an admin password to something other then default. You are right about turning on WEP WPA etc. One of my neighbors, I've never figured out who, hasn't even altered the default admin password on a linksys router that turns up once on a while when I take the laptop out on the porch (something I will be doing more often now that the weather is turning so nice here). I've also run into this when traveling and fire up the laptop in public places (sidewalk cafe etc). I know I shouldn't snoop, but sometimes temptation and boredom .

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Hard to believe I know, but not all p0rn is kiddie p0rn .

You've got great spam filtering. It just wouldn't seem like Monday if a few 'make things larger' spams weren't in the in box.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Basically fundamentalism is the very conservative and dogmatic approach to religion. It is not just limited to a single religon as virtually all of them have those nut jobs as subscribers who would fall into the catagory. In the 20th century the great evil was communism and fascism as practised. In the 21st it is fundamentalism. bin Laden, fundi, jews on west bank trying to prevent peace is palistianians, fundis. Plaestinatinians unwilling to compromice about the temple mount, fundis. Bush and his mighty crusade in the middle east, fundi. The sieks (sp) who now and again go on some rampage in India, fundi and the list goes on and on. Any one who is willing to kill over the idea his book is the only book is a fundi. I have no problem with people who talk to God, but watch out for the ones who think their God talks back.

But more directly to your question:

A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism

But this strays far from the topic of the newsgroup.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Just post whoring here. Do we get points?

Please take that to a more appropriate forum. Thanks.