Hijacking a broadband connection

In the U.S., free wireless networks are very common. They are in hotels, restaurants, cafes, as well as being offered by individuals, and municipalities. Some cafes charge for connections (i.e. Starbucks) but it is more the exception than the rule. Amusingly, some customers will set up a free network inside a Starbucks, so users don't have to pay T-Mobile. I.e., the Starbucks closest to me, is across the street from a city park that offers free wireless, as well as a restaurant that offers free wireless. With a directional antenna, and a bridge, you could easily offer free wireless at Starbucks. The coffee house closest to my house offers free wireless, which is an inducement to go there rather than Starbucks, or other place where they charge for wireless.

It has become a problem, for some cafes, that people squat at a table and never buy anything. Some places now give you a code that is good for a certain amount of time per dollar spent, which seems fair.

Excuse me for butting in but what do you think about some stores that leave bags of mulch, bricks or other supplies outside overnight. I suppose one could say they are offering it to anyone who would care to help themselves.

Not in this country.

here are plenty of wireless "hot spots", but you are almost always expected to pay for the use of those.

That is also true here in the UK.

NO, the juveniles are those thinking they are entitled to free access just because somebody hasn't explicitly prevented them from using something that doesn't belong to them.

Indeed.

But internet access is not one of those things. (at least in the UK)

It is very occasionally that you will find a person or business deliberately offering free access.

No. It is *very occasionally* not charged for.

If you have that expectation in the UK, and act on it, you could well find yourself in court, as did the defendant in the case that prompted this thread.

It may or may not be. Very often, the express intent is that the network is available for anyone to use. Since so many individuals and businesses intentionally freely open their networks for anyone to use, it is the network owner's responsibility to indicate if they are not intending that their unsecure network be used.

It could be argued that if the SSID is "default," "Netgear," "Linksys," etc., that this is an indication that the network owner is simply clueless, and does not intend to share their connection. On the other hand, were I to not secure my network, I would make a point of keeping the factory default SSID because doing so would indicate that I did nothing to induce people to use my network, they did so on their own.

Analogies involving garage doors, gates, etc, are especially irrelevant, because there is no expectation by anyone that they are invited to enter a yard or house, but there is a general knowledge that free wireless networks are pervasive, and that these networks are insecure. This is the case in the U.S. anyway.

Rubbish.

To put something into the public domain, you have to explicitly state you are doing so.

Perhaps this will change in the UK as Internet access becomes routine and ubiquitous.

As a point of comparison, I recently did some travelling in Canada and found that many hotels provide uncharged wireless access. Some of them restrict access to paying guests by means of a daily password on a forced portal but others are entirely open. Of these, the majority seemed to have no objection to people walking in off the street and sitting in the lobby or bar and making use of the access.

It was rather pleasant overlooking Niagara Falls and having the same, instant access to my computers at home as if I were at home. Mike.

"SSID: SSID is an acronym for Service Set Identifier. The SSID is a sequence of up to 32 letters or numbers that is the ID, or name, of a wireless local area network. The SSID is set by a network administrator and for open wireless networks, the SSID is broadcast to all wireless devices within range of the network access point. A closed wireless network does not broadcast the SSID, requiring users to know the SSID to access the network."

presumably why they offer it in the first place - to attract customers. You go in to use the wifi and decide to order a coffee or whatever.

Phil

"A closed wireless network does not broadcast the SSID, requiring users to know the SSID to access the network."

Possibly, but the UK appears to be worse than even the U.S. in terms of the hammerlock that the telecom companies have on the government. Just look at wireless phones in the UK, they still have CPP, which by all accounts results in tariffs that are about 2x what they are in the U.S..

It was at Intel Supercomputer Systems Division in Oregon, not HP.

It may not have legal standing, but it's more than an "opinion".

What do the letters "SSID" stand for?

Does the expression imply anything to do with an offer, or permission?

Rod.

Rod.

Precisely. It is an identifier, nothing more.

I have no idea what you are quoting, but that is precisely bullshit. Whoever wrote it didn't have a clue.

Sounds like Microsoft documentation... ???

So what?

That is not part of the definition.

Some people might think that you're joking, because anyone concerned about freeloaders would use some sort of security. Or they may think that you've chosen that SSID as protection, "honest judge, my SSID implied that I didn't want anyone using my network, it's not my fault that the neighborhood crack pusher was using it."