Administrator
Got to love unsecured 802.11 networks
So I bring my laptop to the beach house rental place I'm at for the week, turn it on to get some MP3's rolling and up pops the real estate office across the street in the available wireless network connections.
I'm now on the porch smoking a Torano Exodus 1959 Torpedo, checking my email and listening to the waves.
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. -- Carl Sagan
Junior Member
Same deal when I visit my Dad. I get my choice of at least 2 other networks (one is still SSID "default")
N2
Whipping Snappers!
I can see it now - Hex "Wardriving"!!!
Oh, and by the way Hex - is that a "Gold" or "Silver" Exodus..
Administrator
I dont know ggiese, it has gold on its band, but no where on the box does it actually say go.. never mindOriginally Posted by ggiese
I can see it now - Hex "Wardriving"!!!
Oh, and by the way Hex - is that a "Gold" or "Silver" Exodus..
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. -- Carl Sagan
001110100010110100101001
Hehe I live about 9 stories up in the air and I get about 5 networks to choose from in my apartment... only wireless device I have is my PDA but I can surf the web while my wife does her term paper quite well!
And it's also a good reminder to protect my wireless network when I get my access point up and running...
Last edited by 8-5-8; 06-23-2005 at 06:59 AM.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't.
Senior Member
Member
Same story in my apartment complex. Lots of colelge students don't realize that they need to secure their gear and don't bother changing the "out-of-box" configs. I have 3 APs in range at the moment, not including my own.
Senior Member
Quite frankly, I don't mind if someone uses my inet connection. It doesn't hurt anything. In an apartment building, you could easily get a few people together and split the bill. As long as you have a router and NAT that is.
Administrator
Did you guys see this news story last week:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/07/07/wi....ap/index.html
Some guy was parked in front of a house using a persons internet connection.... 3rd degree felony...
ouch
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. -- Carl Sagan
Junior Member
Well, thats much different, and far more retarted.
Silent but Deadly
wonder what kind of a punishment he'll get, fine? probation? hopefully no jail time for something like that.
Senior Member
It depends. They didn't say what he was doing. Driving around looking for unsecured networks, he might have been surfing kid porn sites or something like that.
Insert name here
Hi,
We had a case of this over here in sunny England, the guy was fined £500, see the story here. Seems a bitsteep to me.
I thought it was a tampon joke!
Senior Member
That's a good point actually . What would actually happen if someone did use someone else's connection to surf a highly illegal site. How could you prove you are totally innocent?
I have a wireless router at my apartment, but there are about 5 other networks to choose from. Here at my house I dont have a wireless connection, but my neighbor does, so I can mooch off it as long as I'm upstairs.
-Mike
Senior Member
Be careful when you're mooching. If they don't have a router with NAT enabled, they may only have one or two public IP addresses available on their subnet. If you suck up the only available IP, they won't be able to get on, and that's when you'll have problems. At the very least, they'll be using WEP in short order at the behest of a technician.
In my office at the Bing
Its funny that I came across this thread. Three years ago I had the whole house wired up and my laptop is wireless #&%^%^ came in and set up all the connections and routers and made sure all the email accounts were working and the wireless connections were all up and running and getting signals.
When he was done. I asked him if he had a busy day. He said his next job was not for an hour or so. He then said" I will just drive around and look for a signal and play with my laptop in the car until the next appt"
What I am trying to say is anyone can do it and no one is safe !
Watch your info !!!!
Junior Member
1. Most hotels have free wireless in the main lobby and sometimes it's available on the 2nd or 3rd floors where meetings are.
2. Milwaukee is thinking about becoming the first city with wireless access all over--read that recently in the news
Hard Member
page not found...
we went "wardriving" once and found 26 places in a 10 mile area.... they were ALL businesses.
Senior Member
If you turn off your PC when you're not using it, nobody can get into it anyway. If you're concerned about people using your network, there are a few easy things you can do.
Availability: When not in use, turn off some or all of your equipment. Most importantly, the PC with sensitive info. When on your PC but not using the network, disable your NIC interface with the little icon in the taskbar.
Limit reception: Put the WAP in the basement instead of the top floor of the house. This should seriously minimize the usable signal area by directing the line of sight radiation to a cone shaped pattern directed straight up from the basement.
Enable 32 bit WEP: Although this method is relatively easy to break, it will take significant effort and time on the hackers part. Like a deadbolt lock, it will deter the lazy hacker.
Firewall: Use your firewall on the router and your PC. This will probably require a little technical knowledge. Firewalls may interfere with certain actions you wish to do on the internet. A tight firewall will probably need to be tweaked occasionally.
Updates: Keep your OS and Web Browser updated with all the latest security patches.
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