For those who think using someone else's WiFi signal is legal...

But when you're leaving your network unsecured, you're practically asking for someone to steal your WiFi signal.

Like someone mentioned, it's like leaving your door unlocked and wide open and expecting no one to come in at night.

 

Yeees, but does that justify accepting the "offer?"

 

Of course not but I'm just pointing out that if the network admin wasn't so careless, this wouldn't be an issue.

I'm guessing from your avatar that if you caught someone stealing your signal, that would be your reaction? With that baton..

 

Just because the person makes it easier for you to do the wrong, doesn't make it any less wrong. Yes, I agree that you should take measures to protect yourself, and there is always going to be someone that will take advantage of someone that doesn't, but it's still wrong either way. I suppose it would depend on your own morals and values as to your stance on this situation however!

 

Would my answer, affirmative or negative, change your mind, on anything?

 

Revival!!!

 

If it's affirmative, I'll stop parking my car near people's apartments and stealing their signals.

If not, then I shall continue.


j/k I'm not THAT evil to do that.

 

I don't take advantage of anyone's private data, or bog down their connection, but I have been known to connect to unsecured networks to do some light Interneting.

 

Ok, someone left for vacation and left the house door unlock, then someone got in the house and lived there for one month, is it legal?

 

Then you're stealing, plain and simple. No getting on the high-horse, or lambasting you, or anything, just a simple statement of fact.

 

I agree, is like finding a car with the door opened and go for a ride, you are stealing the car and the gas, even if you put the car back on its driveway.

What people don't understand is that the airways are not free, the FCC actually sell them to the operators and then they sell them to the end users for their own use, not for a "community" usage.

Some could say, but what about if the end user is not using it, then it's not going to hurt anyone. Wrong, the service tariff are set taking in consideration an average usage, if the operator has to support the power usage of a particular link because over the average usage, then the operator is losing money and soon they will have to increase the service price, who is the looser? Once again the honest peoples, and all this thanks to dishonest and unscrupulous peoples.

 

Great article.

 

Hey if there signal is unencrypted and is entering and my property it`s fair game!!

 

Are you saying if your neighbor's chickens are coming into your backyard, you can eat them?

 

Yumm, Yumm, Yumm

EDIT : I don't condone the blatant theft of somebody else's wi-fi signal, but their has been times when i needed to check a email or place an on-line order!

In a couple of years everybody will have wised up and all connection will be encrypted!!

 

I don't agree with it but I don't necessarily think it's a horrible thing either. I mean if someone is smart then they will secure their network. It's as simple as that.

 

I think the airways were given to us by God, so they should be free, why does the government sell it?????? And what do we get (the end user) from the sale? The politicians make the money and they buy themselves new computers/laptops, routers and they get free WiFi service for life, is unjust, I will start a group to recover our right to the airways.

In real estate you own from the center of the earth, passing from the perimeter of your property all the way up to the universe, so I should charge any operator for radiating their signal in my property, I should also charge even the airplanes for passing over my space.

Man, I think this coffee was too strong

 

I can see where you're coming from. But maybe I don't quite get the connection use specifics. Do I make them pay more for that usage? If so, I agree, and will only use WAPs that are obviously meant for public use.

 

The airways are the vehicle rental, like a moving truck, so whether you are using an unused space inside the truck or the whole truck, you are still stealing because you are not paying for the truck rental.

 

Well, if the truck isn't full, than the vehicle rental isn't getting ripped off. And, if the vehicle renter's stuff isn't touched, and the use of the space doesn't negatively affect them, than they aren't getting ripped off. IMHO, of course.

But...I'm not sure how well everything parallels.

 

Let's say that you are moving and you load the truck at night to leave the next morning, then during the night someone fill the truck with their stuff, now you start your journey in the morning and then you hear like something is loose in the truck, you stop and open the truck back door and surprise surprise. How would you feel, abused? Not only someone is taking advantage of you but also slowing down the truck, decreasing the truck efficienty, thus costing you more money on gas.

One technical word though, there will be a bandwidth reduction at some point in time, unless the designated user is not online.

 

Like I said, I don't know how far the parallels go, and certainly it's not like there's a permanent space usage; when you disconnect, you aren't taking up their space. Bandwith reduction, eh? Well, I don't feel too bad if it's a few minutes and fast anyways.

 

Heh, I used to be on some one's wifi for about 10 month's using it for download/uploads gaming ...you name it
I blame my wifi addiction, it all started out when we didn't have our own connection at home, and the provider we choose took a long time setting up our ADSL ( 2+ ).

So one day I buy a cheap USB wifi adapter, a few USB cabel extenstions and low and behold find signal's

Not long after that I start reading up on DYI wifi enhancement's and started building my own pringle can antenna and a "wokfri" wich resulted in me stealing wifi from some one 300 ish's meters away from my hous ( according to google maps )

Since then, occasionly when for what ever reason my own connection has downtime ( pretty rare tbh ), I switch over to my old honey pot

I personally don't find what I was doing wrong, since I didn't do anything mallicious to their network or computers, but I know it wasen't right on a social/law abiding level.

I've also done some good, like randomly picking up open wifi's with my iTouch, and renaming their router to something like " Please secure me, I am open" or something similar.
Most of the time the same servers are secured the next day

*Sorry for the semi long kinda OT post * ^^

 

Can the neighbors see that you've connected like does it pop up every time you connect like an icon or do they need to go into network settings etc to see who's connected?

 

See, now that's what I wouldn't do.

...well, I'd do the last paragraph.

They have to do some digging.

 

So the lady next door(Has limited knowledge of computers) would have no idea if i was on her network, Ive connected to it before but I dont use it as i have Cable I'm considering going over and telling her although she nearly ran me over once.

 

Wifi theft rage at its worst! That'll teach you. LOL

 

To the extent that you're consuming bandwidth on someone else's connection, there is less bandwidth available for that person's use, so effectively that person is paying more per unit of bandwidth they get to use than they would otherwise - this is so whether you're monopolizing the connection or just delicately siphoning off a bit here and there.

Second, even if the other person is not online whenever you're using their network, if their ISP has a cap on monthly bandwidth use, or a price escalator based on monthly bandwidth usage then, again, you are effectively making that other person pay more for the bandwidth that they use.

Third, until and unless you can make a winnable case for adverse possession, you are still stealing even if nothing you do causes an effective increase in the price per unit of bandwidth that the owner of the network pays - the only way you're going to get to that, though, is if the owner is the fee-simple owner of that bandwidth connection, and is not a mere lessee (as 99.99% of us are).

 

Not that much digging, although they do have to be aware that they can monitor connections to their network with a fairly high degree of specificity. Even Microsoft's utility, Network Monitor 3.1, will pick up every packet going across a network, and will display the IP of the sender and destination of each packet.

Even simpler, most router admin pages will show the machines that are connected to the network.

 

Not entirely true - adding weight to a half-empty rental truck increases the amount of fuel used (even if only slightly) and thus you are economically injuring the truck renter by freeloading on the truck they rented. Plus, you have no idea if there are any specific limitations on the insurance coverage they might have purchased from the rental company, and your goods might trigger an exception that allows the insurance underwriter to take a pass on coverage should there be a reason for the renter to make a claim against that insurance (e.g., using empty space in your neighbor's truck to transport hazardous chemicals).

 

This is a mindless argument. I am not going to read through this thread. The bottom line is that using someones wireless connection has an effect on their use of the service.

 

Yeah, I probably agree.

Well, is it an appropriate parallel? Do I "add weight" to their connection, decreasing their fuel mileage? What if they weren't using that space, and so their connection is still as fast? But I essentially agree with you, and would try to stick to WAPs where I'm authorized.

 

Hey, after reading that whole article, it says it's actually against the Earthlink rules to leave your WAP unsecured for other people to use! That really convinces me. Because I still can sympathize with the feeling that if it's just a quick sip, you're not causing someone any harm. But I must say the last line of that article was persuasive to the other end. But what about designated free wi-fi in coffeeshops and stuff?