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Originally posted by jda5id
Of course, there are plenty of people that say this is a form of hacking and theft of service, but that is up to you to decide.
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jda5id, I agree with everything you say about wireless being cool stuff, except for the quote above. The argument I've heard most often is that someone who doesn't bother to secure their network is asking to be hacked. I agree with the silliness of not securing properly--people should know to protect themselves. But it's not reasonable to say that it's an individual decision on whether or not this is okay. If a bank leaves their vault open, is it okay for me to walk in and take the money? I don't think so.
Since I don't have a bandwidth limit, I wouldn't care if someone used my wireless router to access the Internet. However, I once got a freakishly large bill for Internet services, because someone stole my password (I still don't know how) and used my dial-up account for hours on end. That's a pretty similar situation to war driving, and it's theft. I'd also be upset if someone was scanning the files on my PC. That's an invasion of privacy.
Theres' a simple acid test: if you're inclined to hide the fact that you're connecting to someone's network from that person, are you acting ethically? Alternatively, would you want someone hooking into your network and hiding it from you?
Russ