Stealing your neighbors wi-fi

[Guest]

So, I'm assuming, Ridgid, that if you happened across Dann's house, found the door unlocked while he was out, you'd make yourself to home?

No I prolly wouldn't go in and make my self at home. but if he was watching a Porno with hot ladys in it. and I happend to walk by on the sidewalk and see his tv screen glaring from his window. I would prolly stop on the sidewalk to watch. atleast for a little while anyway

Ridgid

[Ridgid]

I guess I was just brought up differently... to actually respect others and their property without having to be told to do so.

Ok, you want to be so rigid about what you think is right n wrong...

Look at it this way.
I buy a URL and pay for hosting for the URL.
I choose to put personal data on the server in a nice HTML format that myself or family can read. Some family pic’s and files.
Now no where on my site does it say that its private or for my family only or anything like that. No passwords etc.

Now here comes some search engine spiders. They put info about my site in results that you get looking for info. Hence you go to my website and read or download what ever item you had searched on. So, now in my eyes you have stolen my bandwidth and resources to get info that was private because I didn’t personally tell you it was “ok” for you to read my website. And it shouldn't be my responsibility to password my personal data!!. But you think your doing nothing wrong because a lot of places want you to view their web pages.

I guess you should go to jail for using my bandwidth. And looking data thats just out there in a public place for anyone to see and/or use.

I hope your emailing every person that has a URL so you have permission to use there bandwidth otherwise you may be stealing it and im sure you were brought up better then to just assume the because its there its ok for you to use! .

Ridgid

[Judland]

That's one way of thinking about it. But, in my opinion that falls into the category of unintentionally using the wifi connection of your neighbor (see previous posts), when you thought you were using your own.

It's also a matter of knowingly taking advantage of someone.

Your sitting in your apartment, you know there's no declared free wifi service in your area, you're not paying for wifi or Internet services of any kind, yet you still connect to the Net via someone else's account.... no matter how you justify it in your own mind, it's still wrong.

It's not that far of a jump to go from an issue like this to something like e-mail viruses.

Hey, if you don't want to get e-mail viruses on your PC, then don't receive e-mail, or don't use Microsoft. No one's forcing you to open up e-mail and it's up to the individual to protect their property. So with this philosophy, e-mail viruses, spy-ware, and trojans should all be legal as well. No?

And if so, then it comes full circle to the idea that PCs should not be sold as toasters. People require basic training to protect themselves and the rest of the computing community.

[Judland]

Maybe there should be an International Wi-Fi Consortium established.

Being a member of the Consortium allows you free reign of open wi-fi networks.

This could be something that happens when you sign up for high speed Internet automatically, unless otherwise specified by the customer.

"Sir, your Internet account is all set-up. This also makes you a member of the Wi-Fi Consortium, which allows you to.... blah, blah, blah.

Oh, you don't want to allow others access to your connection? Well, you'll have to follow these steps in order to secure your connection. Of course, this means you will not be part of the Wi-Fi Consortium."

Just a thought I had on my way into the office this morning.

[snarkout]

As long as you aren't taking down their connection or snooping their network, I don't see anything wrong with using open access points. I hate script kiddies as much as anyone, but people also need to learn how to deal with technology they are deploying. I see it like this: if you're not hurting anything, what harm have you done?

For people who disagree, fwiw, I have a t1 and an open access point (DMZed, of course) - I don't care if people use my pipe as long as they don't take down my connection. Of course, I live out in the wilderness, not NYC. Things would prolly be different there.

[Judland]

if you're not hurting anything, what harm have you done?

Probably none. But I'd still feel wrong in doing so.

It's just a personal thing... that's what having an opinion is, isn't it

[dann]

So, I'm assuming, Ridgid, that if you happened across Dann's house, found the door unlocked while he was out, you'd make yourself to home?

No I prolly wouldn't go in and make my self at home. but if he was watching a Porno with hot ladys in it. and I happend to walk by on the sidewalk and see his tv screen glaring from his window. I would prolly stop on the sidewalk to watch. atleast for a little while anyway

Ridgid

So that was you outside my house the other night!

This is a good example, though. At first I did not think so, but then it raises some issues. First, if I was standing outside in the street and staring at someones window for the purposes of viewing what was going on inside, that would definetly creep the owners out and violate our social contracts. Chances are the person might come out and tell me to knock it off or call the police. I'm not sure what the police could actually do other than ask me to leave,if I am not on the person's property.

Now, on the other hand, the person could see me doing this and instead of confronting me in some way, close the curtains. That's part of the reason why we have curtains, correct? For privacy. So generally speaking if you want some privacy then you need to put up curtains.

Now we can then draw the same conclusions for wifi, if you want privacy; secure your access point (install a wifi curtain).

But maybe using a wap without the explict permission of the owner is closer to my neighbor across the street watching the porn on my tv through my window with a pair of binoculars. Is that legal?

[Guest]

I think it's really more like your neighbor getting a super incredible remote control that can stream your sweet cable hookup over to his set, and him watching TV through your tuner for free. If he screws your service up, it's bad, for sure. If he orders playboy channel and sticks you with the bill, that's bad too. However, if he just stealtfully enjoys the toob without you ever knowing or affecing your service, would you mind? I wouldn't.

[snarkout]

Huh, I was magically logged out for that comment. Maybe I forgot to check the always log me in box at work.