QOTD: Have You Ever Stolen Someone's WiFi?
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who would piggyback on someone else’s Wi-Fi and those who lie about whether or not they would piggy back on someone else’s Wi-Fi.
We’ve all done it, so this is less of a “have you?” and more of an opportunity to tell your stories about it. “Stealing” WiFi (stealing is such a harsh word) is a sticky subject, depending on the person.
The issue of WiFi hopping, or WiFi leeching, or whatever you want to call it, is up in the air right now. However, law makers are taking the issue seriously. In the summer of 2005, a man was arrested for leeching off a neighbor's WiFi. Sitting outside the house in a vehicle, Benjamin Smith III used his neighbor's private WiFi signal.
One of the most important things to do as soon as setting up a wireless access point or router is to secure it, but many people don't.
Jane: I’ve only ever done it when I absolutely had to and I would never use it for anything other than checking email etc. Strictly no downloading. I do have some good stories from others, though. Over a period of a couple of weeks, my brother and his girlfriend noticed that their net conection was getting sluggish. One day the SSID and key changed. They changed the password and SSID again, and switched the router's SSID to just say, "Borrowing - fine, Changing - not" just to be clear. A few days later they got a physical letter to their house from an American lad who had been wardriving their WiFi. He was asking them to change the details back because he couldn’t afford his own internet and their WiFi was the only way he could talk to/contact his family. I sympathized with him, but why change the SSID and key? Stupid move.
Marcus: First of all, people should never leave their WiFi connections unprotected. While I’m all for sharing with neighbors, bandwidth caps imposed by ISPs pretty make make every bit and byte a limited resource. That said, of course I’ve hopped onto someone else’s WiFi – but it was only at a time of need when I didn’t have internet of my own, and it was a godsend. I’ve also never tried to crack anyone’s encrypted connection either. I think of open WiFi as like being those ‘penny-helper’ dishes at cash checkouts. I’d take a few to round up your payment to a more convenient number, but I’d never dump the entire thing over the counter to help pay for a six-pack.
Tuan: During times of desperation, like waiting for my ISP to come by and setup my net connection, yes. Some people leave both their computer unsecured as well as their router unsecured. Plenty of times I've seen people leave the router's default login and password. What's funny is, sometimes I find some residential routers so overloaded with leechers. This is easy to see if someone's left their login credentials open. Routers all have a client list, which you can take a look at to see what's connected. If you don't feel a WiFi password is secure enough, you can also turn on your unit's MAC address filtering feature. This will add an extra layer of security.
The question of the day is: Have you ever stolen someone's WiFi signal?
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Connecting to McDonald's free wifi is always fun. Using a Perl script, you can keep changing your mac address (virtually) and accepting the login terms by setting a flag to one.
What this means is that you can go to a Macca's store, where their internet is really fast but capped at 50mb per user. Now it's unlimited.
Just for fun I decided to download a game demo (John Deere : Drive Green - Worst game ever....) which was roughly 300mb. so had a meal at maccas and drove around in a tractor.
Also, for anyone who's ever heard quotes from bash.org - I guessed the password for my neighbours wifi (post code and house number) and uploaded a lot of horse porn. I'm still waiting for them to ask me about it.
Gotta love that Horse Porn.
Yes, two years ago I moved into a new flat. I ordered broadband and there was a 5 day wait for service. Ho hum I thought.
That night I switched on my laptop to watch a DVD and behold! an unsecure wireless network. It was slow but it allowed me to browse the net till my connection got set up.
I'd like to buy the guy a present as a thank you for saving me from serious web withdrawl.
No, i am not scum.
Sometimes it's all too tempting to change their SSID settings, pwd etc on unsecured networks.
Several times actually...
1. When awaiting for Virgin to hook me up.
2. Once in Belgium - when I got lost and my GPS ran out of power and I did not have the right cables in the car... btu hada laptop with Wifi... so found a spot, cracked it and googled the streets I parked in - worked like a charm - within 2 miles I found a motorway and way back home
3. Once at my mate's - when I could listen to the music coming out of the house but he wouldn't hear me calling... I've cracked his WiFi and sent him an email from in front of his house - and within 30 seconds music went down and he opened the door.
4. When I had to do some work and Virgin was just disconnecting me... Had to borrow my neighbours WiFi for few hours to actually complete what I was doing...
5. In many strange situations when you don't know what else to do...
But the bottom line is - I've never used it for porn, torrents or anything like this... Just when I could not access my own connection for some reason and I knew that calling Virgin for help will just waste an hour of my time trying to tell them they have a problem within my area (again) and that yes I have tried to restart the router, modem and my server... and yes I know they don't support Linux... It's one of these endless loops - you know it's illegal - yet it's the only way...
Oh my god - I can't believe you'd introduce an article by saying that those of use who claim not to steal wifi are liars. How dare you!
well I have only used the wifi of my neighbours because of lack of internet in my apartment at that time and I had to able to access my email account for school, for the rest, no. Vista does that for me ;P
My cousin done it so he could play xbox live off his neighbours wifi, but they got wise to him and change the SSID to "Dear Landlord...".
I think these days most people know how to protect themselves...
I have borrowed wifi off neighbours I did not know who openly wanted to share theirs naming theirs something like FreeWiFi
either way I see little wrong with using open wifi networks as long as you do not abuse their connection.
of course..why not use it..mostly I do it when I am somewhere without internet connection and an open AP is like a gift from heaven. and on the other side I do run open AP...if you got a good router you can always set it up to limit leechers to some speed so they still can use internet for mails etc and route it in such a way they do not get to your home computers.
a few times when my net is down
I used my neighbours to order my broadband subscription...
They way I see it is this , if someone sits in a car with the windows open and the radio turned up to max, are you stealing their music by listening to it? However if they had it at a normal volume with the windows closed is it ok to listen by pressing your ear to the glass?
Most people would agree the second example is intrusive and wrong, whilst the first is not. If people want to have broadband, there should be an onus on them and the provider to setup adequate security.
The analgoy with wifi is that my PC will AUTOMATICALLY connect an unsecured network if the preferred one is not availbale, is it then my fault if i continue to use it?
Not a great example as radio is free to listen to, a better one is if someone left the keys in the ignition would it be okay to steal it, the answer is no. The correct thing to do is inform them about it and if they say they don't mind then you can use it.
Theft is theft. This has been argued to death, anyone with a grain of morality knows the correct answer.
Car theft is a false analogy. By "stealing" wifi, you do not inflict any financial damage to the person you are stealing from (I ll leave aside capped packages etc). One could argue that ISPs are missing out, but on the other hand, the vast majority who steal wifi are doing that temporarily.
So if you only borrow a car, but do not pay towards the petrol or maintenance, that is o.k?
Seriously, you scum keep justifying yourselves but it is dishonest, that's the bottom line.
Morality, heard of it?
Well I have used my grandads neighbours wifi while I stay over there. My grandad doesnt have internet. One neighbour has no protection on their wifi neither, I dont know who set theres up but they must be right cowboys!
And have you spoken to them to warn them?
Well, I guess most of the people do it when they move to their new place, waiting for the "most of the time" too Long ISP service to come set up the FAT PIPE. I have to say i did it too, but even worst, since i had nothing to crack those secured networks around my appartment, I took my car and started looking for an unprotected Network! Hopefully it was just to talk on MSN and browse the internet. No kiddy porn or anything like that
Again, car theft/ borrowing / going for a ride ... completely irrelevant.
You re mixing up service with material.
Maintenance of the broadband connection is carried out by the ISP and not by the end user. How often do you service your modem/router and how often do you service your car?...
Would you have to service your car more often if somebody borrowed it everyday?
-Yes
Would you have to pay for more petrol if somebody borrowed it everyday?
-Definitely
Would you have to service your modem/router (or pay the ISP) more often if somebody is "stealing" it everyday?
-Not really.
(Again I am not talking about caps)
If you want to compare sevices, I ll tell you a true story to see a true analogy: I was once living in a flat; one of the other flats had cable tv installed... somehow the technician accidentally shared the cable feed with my flat as well as with hers. In a nutshell, I had free cable tv just because she was paying for it (and the technician messed it up). No financial harm to anybody. At some point, after a long time, I told her, we had a laugh and that was it.
Bottom line: as long as you dont restrict somebody's speed / service, everyone is a happy bunny. Don't try to sound like this advert that compares file sharing with car theft!!!
If you want to make a point, you must find a financial harm here... but there is none; morality is subjective. Something that does not harm someone neither physically, financially nor emotionally is not immoral.
Now, if you say I hurt my neighbour's feelings, that is another story.
Of course it is immoral, you are getting something for nothing which you are not meant to be getting, there is nothing subjective about it.
Forget analogies as you know fine well the point being made but are using pedantry as if it negates the principle. May your neighbour lose their temper and rape and murder you in your bed is all i can say.
After all, it is subjective as to if the neighbour is doing anything wrong at all, who am i to say you are going to suffer in any way.
Can't we all just get along?
You are absolutely right. Next time I go to court to defend a client for murder, I will say that the victim stole his wifi! I hope you are the judge though
Can't we all just get along?
This is me we're talking about.
This is me we're talking about.
BATTLE STATIONS. ALL HANDS ON DECK. CODE RED! ALERT ALERT!
There was another interesting story, there was an unsecured AP and I used it maybe for a month. Then, suddenly, Internet was gone, but AP was working, so I made some minor changes to inject my own Internet via wireless to the AP. It is pity I didn't my neighbours face when he saw internet on the access point which is not physically connected to any network!
re: strangerstranger
radio isnt free, you need to pay a radio license (at least in the uk) which is normally covered by the tv license.
If i wanted to be pinickity i would say the onus is on people not to broadcast unecrypted easily accessible radiowaves through my house.
I object to being called scum as well, you sound like someone who got stung after failing to have the nouse to be able to secure their own network? or am i being harsh????
It's more like reading someone's newspaper. They bought it, you read it, has anything changed?
Radio is broadcast for all who have a radio to receive it, you do not need a license to receive it even in the U.K. nowadays.
Again, if someone has setup a wireless network without explicitly stating it is free for all to use, then it is not for you to use, you are stealing from them, analogies to hell, you all know the principle of it, just inform them what they need to do.
Oh, and seriously, how stupid do i look to setup a network without a password, hell I even change the one on my router.
two thoughts on this..each supporting one side.
wireless stealing good?
Alow people to check times, look up a map send email etc.
wireless stealing bad?
basically, someone pays their ISP an amount for connection.
lets say someone (me) pays 39.95 for 10gb a month. when you work this out it comes to roughly $.003/MB or something (that's probably wrong). So if you connect to my network to send an email or look up a youtube video, you just stole $.62 off me. and stealing is stealing, no matter how small or big.
If you got caught stealing it and you wanted to shock the police or whatever, you could say the "distributors of unencrypted anonymous internet access" are promoting child pornography. How are you going to catch people like that when they can drive in front of your house, connect for a few minutes and drive off without you noticing?
If you have wireless, secure it.
all that aside, if I see an unsecured AP, I'll still hijack it to look up youtube etc. Free internet is free afterall