wireless bandwidth thief!

[tenzilkem]

Guy calls in, just got his laptop/notebook back, cannot get onto wireless network, can see it in his properties, just can't access it, then he tells me he had been borrowing his neighbors wireless bandwidth (aka the jerk was stealing the signal bandwidth) and now that he has his system back the neighbor got smart and locked down the signal! Put that idea to him and he said his neighbor didn't do that! Tranferred him to our wireless specialty dept and they told him to either get his own wireless set up or use another unsecured wireless lol

[Boozy]

I can't believe the number of unsecured networks out there.

My husband says that there is virtually nowhere in the city where he can't jump onto a random network with his laptop.

I just noticed yesterday that a coffee shop located close to the universities is offering wireless - for a fee. Yeah, good luck with that guys.

[Dreamstalker]

The bf was mooching wireless for awhile when he moved (not even trying to be discreet about it), and pulled pretty much the same hissyfit with me when he could no longer connect ("but whhyyyyy? It worked yesterday!"). I should have let him ask for "help" on the computer forum we both frequent, the mods do not take nicely to admissions that a member is stealing wireless.

My town is supposed to be rolling out a municipal wireless network. The catch seems to be that you'll need to pay up to access anything but internal pages (like what Logan Airport is doing now).

[Broomjockey]

My town is supposed to be rolling out a municipal wireless network. The catch seems to be that you'll need to pay up to access anything but internal pages (like what Logan Airport is doing now).

I would love it if they did that here, and I'd not mind paying a monthly fee <or= to what I'd pay for internet otherwise, especially if I could still access it while at home. I'd take my laptop with me a lot more places, and would change to "Now where can I plug in to leech some power..."

[Shabo]

I can't believe the number of unsecured networks out there.

My husband says that there is virtually nowhere in the city where he can't jump onto a random network with his laptop.

I just noticed yesterday that a coffee shop located close to the universities is offering wireless - for a fee. Yeah, good luck with that guys.

Most coffee shops will offer wireless as a service to customers. It encourages them to sit longer and relax... buying more food and coffee. I personally love it!

And yeah, most people don't know how to secure their wireless networks. It happens all the time in dorms in college, too. Which is a bad thing for them, because if anyone downloads a tagged file using their router... the router's owner is in trouble...

[ArenaBoy]

My wireless is quite secure, passwords and all. My county is putting into place a county-wide free wireless network and it should be in place next year.

Panera offers free wireless and I tend to hang out in there for lunch. Many universities are also wireless but I've found them to be sluggish at times.

[cinema guy]

A friend of mine is a teacher. One of his pupils lived down the street from him and was stealing his wireless bandwidth. He was quite impressed that she was capable of doing that.

[Sandman]

I had a customer that I was able to admit that she was stealing wi-fi. I told her that more than likely her neighbors locked down their connections and that's why she couldn't get on their networks anymore.

[lordlundar]

A friend of mine is a teacher. One of his pupils lived down the street from him and was stealing his wireless bandwidth. He was quite impressed that she was capable of doing that.

I saw on some coverage of a DefCon expo some guys made a directional antenna that looked like a sniper rifle. It sent out a signal for about 3 miles.

[MadMike]

I can't believe the number of unsecured networks out there.

Same here.

One time I picked my son up at his grandparents', and he brought his laptop back with him. He had it on in the car, and every time he'd see an unsecured network, he'd read it off. There must have been at least a dozen of them, and it was only about a quarter-mile drive.

[BravoOrig]

I had a customer who called in and could no longer connect to her wifi router saying it was now secured. First thought is someone got in and changed those settings and would probably just use it for themselves, however the router was no longer talking to the modem despite doing the usual power cycle. So they got onto their router, and changed all the settings to make it a grand old time for them. I'm so glad we don't support routers, she got to call Linksys.

These same people are told to get a router, don't know what it does or why they need it, shell out $60 for it and just go right through the step where their setup CD asks if they want to secure their network. Well since saying No gets them finished 5 steps sooner, of course they're not going to!

[LostMyMind]

I don't lock down my router with an encryption. Personally, I'm not worried about it. I don't access any secure sites through my wireless network anyway. But my network only looks like it's open, you'll see it. It'll look like it's a free, open network. But you won't get an IP address from my wireless router.

[BravoOrig]

So you limited the number of IPs it can assign and possibly setup mac filtering? I have mine setup for 10 with no mac filtering, but I only need 4 IPs. One for my main computer, one for the laptop whenever I pull it out, one for my ReplayTV to download the channel guide, and the last for my arcade computer running MAME so I can download updates directly. Add one or two more for computers I'm repairing for someone and I realize I could eliminate a few.

I do have encryption and passwords setup, and monitor what computers are leasing an ip from the router, so far, no worries. I have to say that my Motorola router has given me the least trouble, comparing that to the number of people with other routers who I hear from everyday. Of course that maybe market saturation too.

[Shabo]

Of course that maybe market saturation too.

I'm failing to see the "market saturation" link here... do you mean that everyone has a wireless router and that's why it's market saturation? Perhaps you are thinking of another marketing term? I'm all sortsa confuzzledness.

[technical.angel]

I'm not adjusting well to life without internet at home.

If it gets any worse, I'm afraid I'm going to borrow a wand from work, track down the nearest WAP, and offer free computer repair for access. Of course, everyone around me is locked down.