Who uses their neighbours wireless connection?

[USMC - Retired]

Almost every Krystal's has free wifi...

[Frenchy]

If my neighbor leave their car unlocked withthe keys inside, it just because they want me to take their car for a run. During that time they do not have access to their car and I may do something to it as well. This is the same as taking their WiFi You use it you stoled it.

[duality169]

I think the analogies are best left out of the discussion. Stealing someone's car is not equitable to using someone's unsecured internet connection. Do some polling to see which would upset the affected individual more.

Suffice to say it is a no-no and that if you would like to remain an honest member of society you shouldn't do it. At the same time I don't think you are placing yourself on a slippery slope to grand theft auto.

[DudeZXT]

I think the analogies are best left out of the discussion. Stealing someone's car is not equitable to using someone's unsecured internet connection. Do some polling to see which would upset the affected individual more.

Suffice to say it is a no-no and that if you would like to remain an honest member of society you shouldn't do it. At the same time I don't think you are placing yourself on a slippery slope to grand theft auto.

I tend to agree with this one. It's just like the legality of receiving rf signals, which is why radar detectors are legal...

I just wouldn't want to find out that I 'helped' someone's bad habit or 'helped' them to commit a crime; not only from being implicated by legal agencies because I was an ignorant accessory, but also having my conscience bug me because I was in some way responsible.

INTEGRITY is a difficult concept for some, so I keep my network locked.

[AximX30User]

Stealing cable tv is illegal, stealing telephone service is illegal, stealing internet access is illegal. People in the USA have already been tried and convicted for it.

[RobMan]

After recently traveling with my brother up in the philly area, he showed me how easy it was to access people's networks. The first thing I did when I got home was enable WPA security on router.

(He's an independant that trains corporate IT staffs on wireless internet security. He was appalled that I had not set mine up.)

[Frenchy]

My analogy was just refering to taking something without consentment of the owner is wrong no matter what it is. If you are using someone signal would you be willing to tell the person, "I am using your Internet signal that you are paying for" If you are not willing to tell the person then you know it is wrong and shouldn't do it.

[jledesma]

I used to have my AP opened so my neighbor could use it. It was mutual agreement and I did not charge anything to him as I was riding a free trial. Unfortunately he started "abusing" the connection to the point I was not able to use it anymore.

It was a 1 mbps connection and I was getting about 56 kbps of it. Of course I told him to scram and secured the AP. If he could have controlled himself and used the bandwith wisely we'd still share that access.

[AlexPDL]

I do it and it's not illegal everywhere. If they leave it open I think its fair game. I do not use one on a day to day basis. I have my own network and I close it off to the world. I live in a highly urban area and leaving it open (even just for a short time) would overwhelm it. I do not even leave my SSID on. I would use an open one for e-mail. I would feel bad to download large files etc.

[Noisy Crow]

There's nothing wrong with analogies. The trick is to choose one that is appropriate to the situation at hand.

For WiFi, I think the water analogy works pretty well. If I am watering the lawn on a hot day and someone walking by sticks his head in the sprinkler I'd be happy to be helping the guy cool off. If he kept coming over to fill a watering can without asking I'd be slightly annoyed. If he hooked up a hose and filled his swimming pool, I'd be right cranked off.

I try to stick to the sticking-my-head-in-the-sprinkler end of the spectrum.

[Frenchy]

There's nothing wrong with analogies. The trick is to choose one that is appropriate to the situation at hand.

For WiFi, I think the water analogy works pretty well. If I am watering the lawn on a hot day and someone walking by sticks his head in the sprinkler I'd be happy to be helping the guy cool off. If he kept coming over to fill a watering can without asking I'd be slightly annoyed. If he hooked up a hose and filled his swimming pool, I'd be right cranked off.

I try to stick to the sticking-my-head-in-the-sprinkler end ofthe spectrum.

I like this guy

[zernam]

My neighbour has 2 AP's, and told me one day I can use his wireless. He said, one was called 'livingroom' and is protected and to just use the other one. A month or so later I thanked him and found out that I wasn't even on his AP but on my other neighbour's on the other side of my house. I was just polling email, I doubt they even noticed. Turns out the other AP I wanted I can't detect anyway.

[runnr548]

Keeping it locked is a good thing. If you listen to radio or a scanner, is that OK? What if you record it with a cassette recorder? What if you find a $20 bill? $100? do you keep it?