wifi warriors

[jimmy]

Gosh!
Two cautioned over using wifi without permission - I wonder how that is policed then? I've just been using some free wifi in the town centre to get online, and I'm using some wifi now at the in-laws house, but of course I jack into other peoples wifi without permission regularly.
Not using encryption should be seen as an open invitation really, and any level of encryption is a 'no thanks'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...cs/6565079.stm

[MATTY]

me the same pipe, even my phones wifi ! if its there use it i say !!

[Brewer95]

I cant actually see how it can be policed as wifi opperates at 2.4Ghz which is classed as a deregulated band. So in theory it cant be policed as there are no regulations to police it by.

Please tell me if ive read things wrongly but I cant see how they can stop you recieving data from an open source on this frequency

[bigred5765]

its actually classed as electronic burglary,and you can be traced via your ip, and were your uploading to,websites etc, but it is very hard to catch people doing it, so why not, if you have no key more fool the person running the wifi

[DCM]

As much as I understand that in effect, this is theft, as you are not paying for the service, just leaching it, like someone jumping in the passenger seat of your car, cause the door is unlocked and you are going in their direction.

BUT....

Ignorance isn't an answer, and I do blame retailers a lot for this, in as much as they are not informing their customers of securing their wireless connection. When I was in staples looking for wi0fi and their computer 'expert' came over and I asked about encryption and security, he had to pick the box up to see....

So in the end, I do think it is up to the end user to ensure he/she has locked the door, so you can't just drop into their BB connection.

Another fun thing to do, sit on a bus/train, then set your bluetooth phone to scan for other phones, and you would be sooooo surprised how many are open and not pin activated.

[jimmy]

How is it burglary though if one person allows it and another doesn't ? There is no way of knowing that someone doesn't want you to jack into their wifi unless they password it. You can 'assume' that no one wants people to use their wifi, but maybe some don't mind. I think on a 20 minute drive I picked up around 360 wifi hot spots on the way home - about half protected, the rest either university, homes, businesses and gratis ones (installed to be free for everyone).

I can sit in the bar waiting for my food and connect to their free wifi - or I can accidentally click on the business/home next door with open wifi, or indeed my laptop can connect by itself to either when I turn it on. One is legal, the other is 'Illegal'? Ludicrous beyond words.

[telboy]

its like internet squating isn't it.

you leave your front door open and the next thing, you've got a load of hippies in your living room without your permission.

to be honest, if you fool enough not to have it protected then tufffff.

......mine is!
I know I don't want someone else using a service that I pay for, for their own gratification!

[DCM]

But I don't think people 'knowingly' leave access open, more ignorance, then, if they got a bandwidth limitation on their BB, they wonder why they get capped as they exceed it doing emails.

It is an extreme 'Grey' area, and Wi-Fi manufacturers should sell the units in a 'secure' state but give the option for them to be made open, rather than open with the option of locking. But then it would make the process of setting up longer, and garaunteed to overload their Tech Support.

We all know, leave the front door open people will come in and take things, but for most, computers are black magic.

[bigred5765]

Originally Posted by jimmy

How is it burglary though if one person allows it and another doesn't ? There is no way of knowing that someone doesn't want you to jack into their wifi unless they password it. You can 'assume' that no one wants people to use their wifi, but maybe some don't mind. I think on a 20 minute drive I picked up around 360 wifi hot spots on the way home - about half protected, the rest either university, homes, businesses and gratis ones (installed to be free for everyone).

I can sit in the bar waiting for my food and connect to their free wifi - or I can accidentally click on the business/home next door with open wifi, or indeed my laptop can connect by itself to either when I turn it on. One is legal, the other is 'Illegal'? Ludicrous beyond words.

officially your only allowed to use recognised and registered wifi spots that are registered as free wifi hot stops or pay for wifi hot spots,thats like saying the door was open so i walked in and took a look around,but I'm not poo pooing the idea, your own daft fault if u ask me,no encryption key,don't complain about it being high jacked,

[DCM]

true, most are ignorant to the fact of leaching and security