There are some interesting opinions here. I think the issue is there seems to be no way of identifying that an open network is availbale for general use bar - as previously mentioned - it has an SSID such as "Starbucks".
I tried googling the SSID but got nothing.
I don't want to risk £500 for checking my e-mails max twice a day.
Ok, lets say your caught in the center of town connected to a companies WIFI, If they have the knowledge to be able to catch you or packet sniff then surely they should have the knowledge to secure their WIFI.
On the other hand you in the middle of a housing estate, checking your emails, how is the average joe going to know that you are using his bandwidth, apart from you standing outside with you laptpop/axim with big smug grin on your face.
I think you just have to be carefull and not stupid about it. I know that this has no stand up in court and its just me rambling on but its how i see it.
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I find that there are many free-access networks that also do not change the device name (example: 3com at my place of work). So it really is difficult to determine from that standard whether the network really is for free. What you really need to steer clear of, is any network that bears any mark that is personal: "home," "private," "personal," "family," and any personal first names (when there is no place of business nearby bearing that name). Also, when connecting to any unsecure network, you may want to "stealth" your device, using a generic device name for the network, such as "computer" or "network."
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Just in case for those who weren't aware. Even if you do happened to be accessing one that is purposely left open, you might want to just use it for general internet browsing (ie, weather, news, movie listing, etc.) because someone might purposely leave open to capture personal information. So using it to check email might be a bad idea. Unless you have some way of making sure your connection is secure. Otherwise, the people that owns the hotspot might be able to read the email that you are reading.
There are a bunch of free anonymous programs that protect you while online. I recomend taking advantage of them whever your on a wireless network, private or otherwise. Even on starbucks networks, what's stopping a 'hacker' from capturing your data right out of the air. 128bit encyption is cheap. $5-$10 a month for high-speed servers. Even VPN which is extreamly secure only costs $10.
If you need access to a simple but free web based proxy, use my friend's... http://proxy.majestyc.net (username: majestyc / password proxy). Its hosted on a personal server. I use it at work to bypass censor filters all the time.
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What is often forgot about is that many people leave their wireless network open on purpose. Some argue that they believe the internet should be free, but in my experience it's P2P fileswappers or people "up to no good" who leave their internet open that way if they ever get caught they can argue it was someone else who was stealing their bandwidth.
Then theres the ones that leave it open because they need it to be open. Small business like real estate offices will often leave their network open for guests. And because the owners of small business are no different then your average Joe, they'll usually just leave routers on the default setting rather then making a dedicated Hotspot server from an old PC.
Personally, if I find an open network I'll use it. There are so many 'it could be' senarios. I figure if the person wants it private all they have to do is follow the on screen directions which asks them to enter a password (or passphrase) during setup.
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Last edited by ChrisDaniele; 01-28-06 at 03:16 PM.
Ok, lets say your caught in the center of town connected to a companies WIFI, If they have the knowledge to be able to catch you or packet sniff then surely they should have the knowledge to secure their WIFI.
On the other hand you in the middle of a housing estate, checking your emails, how is the average joe going to know that you are using his bandwidth, apart from you standing outside with you laptpop/axim with big smug grin on your face.
I think you just have to be carefull and not stupid about it. I know that this has no stand up in court and its just me rambling on but its how i see it.
The log in the Access Point record access Date, time and of course your MAC address. Pretty easy to trac you down. If you have set your school WiFi you should have known this unless you didn't spent the time to read the manual. In my view and many others it is stealing not borrowing. My2¢
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If you get dead silence after breaking the speed of sound, would you be in the darkness after passing the speed of light?
Windows XP has been known to automatically connect to unencrypted networks out of the box.
And for those who use default SSIDs, if there are 2 routers with the same SSID, the system will simply pick whichever one has a stronger signal or whichever one it manages to find first.
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Originally Posted by A friend of mine who has a Linux kernel named after his girlfriend.
If I was VirtualBox, I could load my virtualization module into Hannah and boot up another kernel in the same address space.
What is the difference in taking a car for a joyride, because the keys were left on the seat and the door unlocked and using someone's bandwidth? When you steal someone's bandwidth there is a cost involved to the homeowner and the internet provider.
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Theres a huge difference. A car is located on their property and not inside your garage. You can't claim I didn't know or that the car picked you up, handed you the keys, and drove your around all by iteself. And as Star already said, many computers and devices are set to connect automatically. A new user to computers can make a case that they didn't know which network they were suppose to click on. Many customers might see a wireless connection with the name Linksys, another called WRT54G, and a third called "Gateway." For someone who doesn't know a thing about computers let alone wireless networking, their not going to know which one to connect to. And if you've ever talked with Linksy' (or any other router manufactor) their not going to be much help. They'll just refer you to the manual or their website.
On top of all this, there is also no clear boundary or property lines that would have to be broken. And don't forget the law is very grey on this - for understable reasons: new technology, automation, public knowledge, etc etc...
But getting back to reality. Understand the chances of getting cought is extreamly difficult. You'd have to be using quiet a bit of bandwidth for a long period of time just for the network owner to realise someone was connected. And if they do see you, more then likely they'll just block your IP address. Of course if you start messing around with things, then you might get into trouble. Checking your email and webpages... your pretty damn safe.
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The log in the Access Point record access Date, time and of course your MAC address. Pretty easy to trac you down. If you have set your school WiFi you should have known this unless you didn't spent the time to read the manual. In my view and many others it is stealing not borrowing. My2¢
Yes i know it would record my MAC address but if im walking down the street, connect to someones WIFI for 5 minutes whilst i check my emails who is there to catch me? The chances of someone looking at the logs at that particular moment in time are slim. Then ok they know my MAC address but how do they know where i am?
i have worked in places where WIFI covers an area of 500+ yards square over several acess points.
What im saying is yes they can identify you (or your device) but it would be very hard to track you down unless you were being obvious.
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