Dang Jeff, You are making it very difficult for me to keep a straight face in my Corporate Law class!
Don't leeching slow down your internet? I only leech when my friend's (whom I'm splitting the bill with) internet is down. I don't hate leechers though.. or actually just this one guy who lives 2 houses down.. he's a prick.. and he told me he's leeching. I'm gonna take R2K's advice and tell my friend to do it. I can't wait for this WiFi deal to go down in Houston!
Are we really ass-hats if we try to leech? I certainly don't try to bum, but there are times i'm on the road, and could use the service. personally, i'm about to go wifi in my place, and i'll let anyone leech off it, unless i see serious slowdown time. But at the place i work, we all use the same wifi, with no slowdowns. Again, i'm a computer moron, if not more. Just curious why this is such a threat, especially considering the whole city is about to go wifi.
It's actually illegal to tap on other's wireless network here. At least don't do it often on the same network http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=57512 SINGAPORE: Teen, 17, first to be charged with unauthorised wireless Net access A polytechnic student charged with piggybacking on another's wireless Internet connection, may face up to three years in prison and $10,000 in fines Straits Times Saturday, November 11, 2006 By Chua Hian Hou A 17-year-old polytechnic student has become the first person here to be charged with piggybacking on someone else's wireless Internet connection. Garyl Tan Jia Luo was accused yesterday of using a laptop computer to gain unauthorised access to a home wireless network on May 13 this year. If convicted, Tan faces up to three years in jail and fines of up to $10,000 under Section 6(1)(a) of the Computer Misuse Act. Tan was released on $6,000 bail and is scheduled to appear at the Subordinate Courts on Wednesday. Court documents did not describe the circumstances in which Tan was arrested, but The Straits Times understands that a neighbour near his Casuarina Walk home had lodged a complaint against him. While there are no statistics on how commonplace the practice of piggybacking unsecured home wireless networks is, networking firm Cisco System's spokesman, Mr Rayson Cheo, said it is probably quite widespread here. Most modern notebook computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) have the ability to sniff out unsecured networks and hop online for free with just a few clicks. There are numerous guides online that describe how to do this and the low cost of wireless networking equipment means that most HDB or condominium blocks have unprotected networks users can log on to. Said Mr Cheo: "People assume, wrongly, that since it is there, it is okay to use it." Mr Aloysius Cheang, the chairman of local infocomm security association, the Special Interest Group in Security and Information Integrity, said: "Most people probably do it because it is convenient, or because they are cheap and want free Internet. "But, for some, it is because they want to do something illegal like defaming someone or downloading pirated MP3s, and they don't want the activities traced back to their own network." In the online world, there are even special terms for it, like "wardriving" and "Wi-Fi mooching." The problem, said lawyer Bryan Tan, is that while most people know that mooching is not quite legitimate, they probably do not know that it can be treated as a serious offence. "Blinkered by the convenience and allure of free Internet," people don't realise that mooching is the virtual equivalent of trespassing," he added. Likewise, many users do not seem to realise that they can block moochers simply by installing a password on their Internet connections. For most users, the only indication they get that someone is mooching is when their connection speed slows down, though Mr Cheo said software tools are available for download that can track who is using a network and what they are doing on it. While the case is the first of its kind here, there have been at least two similar arrests and convictions in the United States. In some countries like Holland, Mr Tan added, Wi-Fi network owners can even be held liable by the courts for crimes committed on their unprotected networks. Date Posted: 11/11/2006
Call me wireless stupid, but how do I know if Im leaching? We have a wireless routher, but there are like 3 unsecured networks to choose from and 4 security enabled ones. How the hell am I supposed to know which one is ours? Ive just been connecting to the one that has the best connectivity rating wich is called "han". Am I doing something illegal?
probably not in most cases. I dont know what layout your place is, but I would expect the strongest signal would come form the closest one to you, which *should* be yours. Ask whoever setup your wireless what they named the SSID. It is illegal, but unless you cause problems or are actively hacking a secured one, you are unlikley to get busted. afaik, knowingly using a service you dont pay for is illegal or at the least unethical. but like I said above, unless you are cuasing problems, you are probably safe. big difference in bandwidth between your work and home networks. at work the architecture of the network is setup for many users at once, at home if you get more than a couple of people doing p2p or other forms of downloading or streaming it will make your interwebz experience stink. Im well aware of your computer knowledge the threat is leaving yourself open to people with malicious intent. Any financial records on your computers? they can be accessed by anyone that has a half a brain and certain script kiddy tools they could also cause your connection to become bogged down with traffic in a mass DDOS attack by planting a program on your network/computer if they felt like it. or attack a government network thru your connection, and have the feds coming to talk to you about it when they immeditaly track them down. I realize these are unlikley scenarios...but by leaving your wifi open to anyone, these scenarios *could* easily happen if the right person decided to use your connection. call me paranoid, but Id rather take a few easy security measures and protect myself and my network (which on my home network holds company data also)
