The pros and cons of siphoning someone else's wireless

[DAS]

So I'm back home for Christmas and am too used to walking about a house using wireless internet. I am lazy. Sure enough, my laptop picks up a wireless connection - probably from next door.

I know that using someone else's hardearned wireless internet connection is this is immoral and probably amounts to theft. However, surely leaving wireless unprotected and without the need for a passkey is an open invitation to anybody in the area?

Taking the morality out of the equation, should I use next door's connection? Can I be identified? Can they see what I am doing? Is there any way they will notice?

[Chris]

Taking the morality out of the equation, should I use next door's connection? Can I be identified? Can they see what I am doing? Is there any way they will notice?

Well, if they know jack shit about wireless security, then I doubt if they would notice. Unless of course, you decided to use their connection for nefarious purposes such as downloading vast amounts of porn between people below the age of consent, or started saturating their connection all of the time.

As to whether they can see what you're doing, maybe. It'd depend on how their network is set up, and if you have any remote access software installed and enabled on your machine (e.g. remote desktop, VNC). Snooping is possible if the connection is unencrypted though so I would not use the connection for any personal things - take precautions like you would when logging on at a public PC.

However, surely leaving wireless unprotected and without the need for a passkey is an open invitation to anybody in the area?

Personally, I find putting wireless technology into the hands of the technophobes and your everyday "Joe Bloggs" dangerous, as the security options are not configured by default on the router, and most likely they will shove the instructions in the bin or in a drawer somewhere and not bother reading them.

This is another reason why they should sell wired routers more as opposed to wireless routers because with wires it is much harder to let others piggyback onto your open internet connection, and potentially snoop into the contents of your computer (which, if we take the majority of technophobes/"Joe Bloggs" types) do not bother with any form of secure access control (such as forcing passwords with their usernames and enabling the control-alt-delete logon box) and often leave passwords blank, so all you need to do is guess the username and you're in and can browse their computers' hard drive. If you're like this on your laptop, then they could potentially browse your files as well.

[cdd]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's not immoral at all, you're getting them better value for money!

[Stuart*]

I got a wireless network when my new housemate moved in because I didn't want wires running all over the house. However, he now uses a laptop and he often gets the choice of ours or next doors connection

You can actually tell who is logged onto your network, but I doubt whether the guy next door knows how to do it........if he does, he's not come banging on the door about the amount of porn Tony downloads from gay websites

[cwathen]

Personally, I find putting wireless technology into the hands of the technophobes and your everyday "Joe Bloggs" dangerous, as the security options are not configured by default on the router, and most likely they will shove the instructions in the bin or in a drawer somewhere and not bother reading them.

This is another reason why they should sell wired routers more as opposed to wireless routers because with wires it is much harder to let others piggyback onto your open internet connection,

Although I take your point, saying that joe bloggs shouldn't use wireless because he probably hasn't secured the connection is rather like saying that the Joe Bloggs of 3 or 4 years ago should only use the internet at a cyber cafe rather than having a home connection because he probably didn't have a firewall or antivirus software.

In contrast, the Joe Bloggs of today probably does have a pretty secure internet connection - and that wasn't through educating him in how to secure his connection, it's because now virtually all new computers come with an 'internet security' package comprising a firewall and a virus scanner, and these products are now virtually 'fit and forget' solutions which maintain themselves.

Breaches of wireless network security needs to be tackled in the same way - by the industry rather than by expecting the end user to do it. If manufacturers stopped making wireless such a simple 'it just works' technology to install, but instead incorporated setup procedures which did secure the network, and made clear the consequences of not doing this if people attempt to cancel them, Joe Bloggs would have a secure network.

You can't introduce new technology and then say that it's only suitable for techies because only they know how to use it safely, you instead adapt the the technology so that non-technies CAN use it safely.

[cdd]

You can actually tell who is logged onto your network

Sort of - you can find out their mac address or computer name. Unless you have a "helpful" computer name, like "JohnsPC", or they physically get hold of your computer to find out your name/mac address, it's meaningless though.

[James Martin]

It's slightly naughty but IMO not a problem, says somebody who went wireless on his laptop today.

That said though I can only pick up my own network here.

[Orry Verducci]

Some routers (such as mine) also record all the PC's names and the IP addresses it has reserved from them on it's admin panel. I have also seen software that will work on some setups enabling you to see who is on your network, block things to them and send the messages telling them to get off.

[Neil Jones]

Some routers (such as mine) also record all the PC's names and the IP addresses it has reserved from them on it's admin panel. I have also seen software that will work on some setups enabling you to see who is on your network, block things to them and send the messages telling them to get off.

But that software isn't going to be able to tell you anything that the router doesn't already know. At most you'll get the computer's name (which is usually a collection of random characters), the IP address your router has given it and (router pending) what they've done with the connection.

I don't believe it would be possible to send messages to somebody across the network and have them see it without the appropriate software, bearing in mind that the Messenger service in XP was switched off by default with Service Pack 2. Therefore you could send something but with no guarantee they'd see it.

Routers are often sold with no security on the wireless side by default; because the manufacturers know that otherwise 95% of buyers will not have a clue how to enter the default key to log onto the thing. Plus of course if it goes out unsecured but able to connect, then D-Link, Cisco, Netgear, etc, can shift the blame on end-users for not reading the manual when they phone up asking why every bugger in the street is on their network.