An article in the New York Times takes a look at using open wireless connections, something I have done myself using my cousin’s laptop. Most broadband connections hooked up to Wireless routers, are not being used anywhere near their full capacity, so I don’t see why people are so worried if someone connects to check some e-mail or do some instant messaging, but I do see a problem with people sitting outside someone’s house connecting to download a movie, or surf adult material. The article in the New York times does not seem to show a distinction between me and the porn surfer, which I think is a little sad.
Many who piggyback say the practice does not feel like theft because it does not seem to take anything away from anyone. One occasional piggybacker recently compared it to “reading the newspaper over someone’s shoulder.”
“The best case is that you end up giving a neighbor a free ride,” Mr. Cole said. “The worst case is that someone can destroy your computer, take your files and do some really nefarious things with your network that gets you dragged into court.”
What do you think? If you had wireless or have wireless, would/do you leave it open? Have you used the wireless access of others without their permission, and why?
I do use other people’s wireless, when it’s open and available. I also leave my own wireless connection open for others to use. I lock down my home network in other ways to prevent intrusion from strangers and never try to intrude on the wireless I borrow. I never do much more han check my email and maybe my news feeds on someone else’s connection.
I wish more people would do the same.
I lock down all of my computers as if they were exposed directly to the Internet without a router, so leaving the wireless connection open is no big deal. It’s also a nice plausible deniability defense.
I lock down my wireless connections using WPA, because the one time I didn’t do this I logged into my router to see that half a dozen people were using my connection for free (going off the size of the DHCP allocation table). I don’t mind the occassional fellow geek using my connection to check their email, but having all my neighbours downloading via a service that I’m paying for is a bit cheeky in my opinion.
It would be nice if you could throttle the connection for non-authenticated users. Someone who is using the connection for checking email or quickly finding a map on the web really wouldn’t need much bandwidth.
If it was easy to set aside 10kb/s for non-authenticated users, I think more people would allow others to use their connection. If every wireless network had this, the world would be a much more connected place…
My wireless connection is open, but the signal isn’t being broadcasted and you need to have a particular Mac-Address in order to connect.
It’s not the safest choice, but it’s safe enough for me, I don’t think any of my neighbours are of any threat, except when they’re knocking on my door asking for help with their computers.
I make my connection available for others that happen by and I take advantage of the same when I am mobile.
Wireless shouldn’t be some holy commodity. It is media for the people and access shouldn’t be limited or privileged.
Wouldn’t it be a different world if this veil of fear that so many people find themselves under were lifted were lifted off of those who simply have not yet learned how to protect themselves online?
My laptop has BT as does my mobile; I take my wireless ‘DSL’ with me. At home is WPA-PSK TKIP + QoS + FileShare requiring IPsec. Go play somewhere else. :P
But how, if you don’t want to share, doe’s one block access to one’s wireless signal?
Richard