jdbower
Platinum Member
Some corrections here:
1. It is stealing. You're using your neighbor's bandwidth and, in some respects, stealing their identity (if you don't believe me make some "anonymous" threats against a public figure and note that they go to your neighbor's house before they pull his router logs and track you down). Whether someone's been arrested for this is irrelevant, your moral decisions should not be based on punishment but based on the right thing to do. I would try to identify where the signal is coming from and let them know it's open, they probably don't realize it and or that it's a security risk - think of this like telling your neighbor they shouldn't leave their front door open when they go out shopping. If it ends up being a local coffee shop, then while using it may not be illegal it's still like walking in, using their bathroom, and taking their sugar packets without buying anything. We need to separate out what's "legal" with what's "moral" and I find theft of service hard to justify morally.
2. While no wi-fi is 100% secure you should always use the best protection your router and laptop can support - there's just no reason not to. It's trivial to spoof a MAC address so that doesn't buy you any protection (check out your router config, most of them allow you to change the MAC right there and those Linux boot CDs give you the same option).
3. Even though any security can be broken, most of the time yours will not. If you're not an explicit target (and, let's face it, probably no one on TBN is important enough to be a directed target) most people would much rather go to a city or a wealthy suburb to find an open network than to spend the effort parked on a rural road trying to steal a farmer's bank information. Remember, the typical person doesn't have any idea that you've dropped $100k on a tractor.
4. ISPs can not read your passwords without decrypting them first, just like any hacker (but corporations are easier to trace and have much deeper pockets for fines). They also have no access to your hard drive nor can they see most of what your doing. As far as your surfing habits are concerned, if you're worried about them noticing that then should you really be going to those websites on your neighbor's computer? Doesn't seem to neighborly to me...
In summary, a wifi-enabled router can be had for <$50, I'd buy one of your own, configuring it to WPA2 security and avoid the whole moral dilemma of whether it's OK to use something your neighbor is paying for.
1. It is stealing. You're using your neighbor's bandwidth and, in some respects, stealing their identity (if you don't believe me make some "anonymous" threats against a public figure and note that they go to your neighbor's house before they pull his router logs and track you down). Whether someone's been arrested for this is irrelevant, your moral decisions should not be based on punishment but based on the right thing to do. I would try to identify where the signal is coming from and let them know it's open, they probably don't realize it and or that it's a security risk - think of this like telling your neighbor they shouldn't leave their front door open when they go out shopping. If it ends up being a local coffee shop, then while using it may not be illegal it's still like walking in, using their bathroom, and taking their sugar packets without buying anything. We need to separate out what's "legal" with what's "moral" and I find theft of service hard to justify morally.
2. While no wi-fi is 100% secure you should always use the best protection your router and laptop can support - there's just no reason not to. It's trivial to spoof a MAC address so that doesn't buy you any protection (check out your router config, most of them allow you to change the MAC right there and those Linux boot CDs give you the same option).
3. Even though any security can be broken, most of the time yours will not. If you're not an explicit target (and, let's face it, probably no one on TBN is important enough to be a directed target) most people would much rather go to a city or a wealthy suburb to find an open network than to spend the effort parked on a rural road trying to steal a farmer's bank information. Remember, the typical person doesn't have any idea that you've dropped $100k on a tractor.
4. ISPs can not read your passwords without decrypting them first, just like any hacker (but corporations are easier to trace and have much deeper pockets for fines). They also have no access to your hard drive nor can they see most of what your doing. As far as your surfing habits are concerned, if you're worried about them noticing that then should you really be going to those websites on your neighbor's computer? Doesn't seem to neighborly to me...
In summary, a wifi-enabled router can be had for <$50, I'd buy one of your own, configuring it to WPA2 security and avoid the whole moral dilemma of whether it's OK to use something your neighbor is paying for.
If you want to try it yourself in Windows 