Is this illegal?

[ShinyGreenApple]

Not even been on the phones for a week and we already have stories, heh.

Simple one. Lady calls in, and explains to me that she lives in an apartment, has our satellite service. Says that she has an additional receiver which she had installed in the apartment next to her for her neighbor, and also says that our installers did it. Neighbor moved away, so they collected the equipment from him, but put it back into the apartment next door because someone else moved into it. Oh yeah, both times they have been 'splitting the bill' with said neighbors.

"Um, all I'm really wanting to know is, is this illegal?"

Me: :eek: "I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but yes, that is, in fact, illegal. I can only suggest that you get that disconnected as soon as possible."

SC: "Oh. . . well I hate to leave him without service with Christmas and all coming up, there's no way I can? . . . oh well. What kind of trouble would I get into?"

I then explained that she could be everything from arrested to sued. She thanked me and hung up, but I had the worst time not laughing during that call. :D

[anode_probe]

Sounds like the call I had with a lady living in Manhatten. She was stealing a wireless internet signal from a neighbor.... she didn't know who it was, but she knew full well that it wasn't exactly ethical. Here's an advert for at least WEP security

[sld72382]

I got a few calls I had to refund because of that. Wanted help with troubleshooting their internet, when I asked them to head over to where their modem and router is they would go, "That's gonna be kinda hard as I'm using someone else's router."

We cannot troubleshoot this and I inform them that there are reports that the US might be outlawing this so it's better in the long run to buy your own modem and router and shell out the monthly fee (it's the same as stealing cable, IMO). One women accused me of calling her a thief. :eek: Well if the shoe fits.... :roll:

[LostMyMind]

I inform them that there are reports that the US might be outlawing
Florida has already made connecting to someone's wireless router without permission, illegal and an arrestable act.

[Phone Jockey]

She was stealing a wireless internet signal from a neighbor.... she didn't know who it was, but she knew full well that it wasn't exactly ethical.

I had a guy call, upset that his neighbor's wireless signal was "weak" in his opinion & he wanted to set up his own for that reason. *sigh*

[ODZ]

Florida has already made connecting to someone's wireless router without permission, illegal and an arrestable act.

That's going to be an interesting law to enforce as i'm authorized anytime i connect to an unsecured wi fi connection.

We need more legislation that is headed in this direction

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060421-6647.html

How about instead of only businesses we require everyone to secure there connection?

And NOT in this direction

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/04/State/Wi_Fi_cloaks_a_new_br.shtml

Be responsible for your own wi fi connection!
:wave: Lostmymind :D

[LostMyMind]

That's going to be an interesting law to enforce as i'm authorized anytime i connect to an unsecured wi fi connection.
Protocol handshaking authorization is not legal permission. That like saying I was given permission to take that car because the car door open for me.

Florida pass that law to have something with teeth. There was a problem with drive-by-hackers, trying to steal information.

Be responsible for your own wi fi connection!
:wave: Lostmymind :D
Be responsible for your own ethics!
:wave: ODZ :D

[yahurd]

just call the neighbor on your cell, and whisper
"i want you to go for the extra "s" in wep, youve needed it awhile and if it could be done soon that would be great"

[Kilamon]

My home network is secured down. I tell all my friends, relatives, etc, to do the same. However, I recently visited one of these friends and found that he had not secured it. I thought I'd have some fun with him and scanned the whole net, found his PC, his laptops, his set-top box, everything. Later, I informed of of all the devices I found and asked him if he'd like meto secure it down for him, to which he was very happy to have me do since he only owned one laptop, not two. :eek: Seems his neighbours were online when I probed! I should have scanned the traffic, watched where they were browsing to, etc. That would have been fun.

Same guy came to visit me and wanted to use my wireless. He couldn't understand how to get the keys entered and the ssid set manually so he went without it until I got back from work. He's part of the reason my wife brags about how secure we are. LOL

[Captain Trips]

Sounds like the call I had with a lady living in Manhatten. She was stealing a wireless internet signal from a neighbor.... she didn't know who it was, but she knew full well that it wasn't exactly ethical. Here's an advert for at least WEP security

WEP -- meh. Go for at least WPA. That's what I'm doing -- that PLUS MAC address (only allow) filtering. If I didn't say your network card COULD connect, then you CAN'T!

Also do NOT transmit SSID, change passwords, etc. (This advice for those on the board who don't understand what we are talking about.)

And if I need any war-driving done, I'll ask my boss. If SHE can't get in, no one can! (Yeah, she's that good a hacker!)

[LostMyMind]

Bah, MAC address filtering is all you need. Most drive by hackers don't spend that kind of time on a blocked firewall. They'll just go down the street a little more.

[dougall]

You can fake Mac Addresses easily all you have to do is watch the traffic to get an allowed address then set your card to use it.

Here is a good link explaining it http://www.grc.com/SecurityNow.htm#11 Episode 11 You also get explanations of Wep and WPA encryption

[pbmods]

"Um, all I'm really wanting to know is, is this illegal?"

What's the point of asking, lady? No matter what answer you get, you'll keep doing it anyway.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I seem to be picking up several home networks within range when I have my laptop in the living room.

Two of them are secured, the other one isn't. All of them come in as very low or low signal.

Luckily since we switched back to DSL (as of yesterday afternoon) our home network is secured. The WEP is required to connect to the network (which was all I had to enter on the laptop and she was up and running.)

Yet when we had the cable ISP, the tech that did our install didn't secure our network.

Which is why I think I'd rather install stuff myself . . . I don't have to blame anyone else if something goes wrong.:lol:

[tollbaby]

So... can anyone explain how come I suddenly started hearing the radio conversation between two snowplow operators through my computer headphones the other night? I wasn't online, and it was really freaky! LOL

[pbmods]

So... can anyone explain how come I suddenly started hearing the radio conversation between two snowplow operators through my computer headphones the other night? I wasn't online, and it was really freaky! LOL

Speculating here... maybe you had a long length of cable of some kind running parallel to your headphone cable. The long cable picked up the radio transmission and via magnetic field transferred the signal to your headphone cable.

Or maybe you should just have your fillings checked again.

[trunks2k]

So... can anyone explain how come I suddenly started hearing the radio conversation between two snowplow operators through my computer headphones the other night? I wasn't online, and it was really freaky! LOL

Earphones and such stuff tend to occassionally pick up radio transmissions. It'll take some special circumstances, but it's not unheard of.

[tollbaby]

scared the crap right out of me when it happened, cause I was just sitting there minding my own business, listening to some tunes... and all of a sudden, I have these two French guys babbling in my ear about their shift change and the fact that one of them had a jam in his sand dispenser LOL

[MMATM]

That's similar to one incident (back in the dialup days) when I at the ripe old age of about 10 was trying to get online by guessing my parents' password (which was, incidentally, "password" and of course being 10 also the first thing i tried). :rolleyes: I didn't really understand that the computer and phone ran on the same line, and my dad was talking to one of our neighbors on the phone at the time. The computer connected, and I was able to listen in (without speakers...:confused:) but not take part in (also no mike) my dad's conversation to our neighbor. He was going to have me run over to the neighbor's house with some Sally Foster stuff (wrapping paper) or something like that. My brother and his friends were all :eek: that we could hear the phone conversation but as soon as I went upstairs (computer was in the basement) to ask my dad what he needed me to bring next door, they pounced on it and I got in trouble for trying to take it back when I got home. To this day the incident has freaked me out a bit.

And no, we never actually got past the "DIALING.... CONNECTING...." screen. My brother and friends decided to log off and play games instead.

Sorry that was a bit long. :o

[RogueOne]

my dad was talking to one of our neighbors on the phone at the time. The computer connected, and I was able to listen in (without speakers...:confused:)

The sound was coming from the computer's internal system speaker.

[MadMike]

Earphones and such stuff tend to occassionally pick up radio transmissions. It'll take some special circumstances, but it's not unheard of.

A couple years ago, my computer speakers started to faintly transmit a radio station. At first, I thought my son left his radio on upstairs, but he checked and said it was off. Took us awhile to figure out where it was coming from.

It did that for a few days, and then stopped just as suddenly and mysteriously as it had started. :confused:

[DGoddessChardonnay]

So... can anyone explain how come I suddenly started hearing the radio conversation between two snowplow operators through my computer headphones the other night? I wasn't online, and it was really freaky! LOL


I wish I could explain that one, but I'm still waiting for explanation on why I could hear our local R&B station with my boombox OFF back when I was in high school.

I could hear it through my headphones . . . . not sure if it had something to do w/the proximity of their tower (which was about a mile from our house that we lived in back in the 80's.)

But now, we're closer to the same radio station, but I'm not hearing the station on my current boom box w/it turned off.

Weird. :shrug:

[DarthRetard]

It's that Damned JERRY BEAVER!!!:rant:

[Hobgoblin]

When I was in college, our chapel's copper wiring was outstanding at picking up a local radio station. It was awesome for those really boring sermons or speaches that we had to go to. Just sit back, relax, listen to the tunes and then fall asleep.

[Enigma]

LOL

When that happens with us, unless they directly ask us like you did, we're not supposed to mention it, but instead send an email to our audit team. When they get the email, they perform said audit, then if necissary perform an equipment lock on it.

Last week I got a call from a lady who sounded awfully familiar (we have 13 million customers, so when to get a repeat call is really odd), because she didn't know any information to bring up her account, and I had to wait till she finished her drive home and got a bill to give me the acct number.

Well anyway, I figured out she had an equip lock and I was the one who sent the email. XD