Wi FI question

[308mate]

If you log in to someone elses Wi Fi, can they see what you view?

Yours, slightly paranoid in a b&b, MSNing a bird.....

[fadeaway]

308mate said:

If you log in to someone elses Wi Fi, can they see what you view?

Yours, slightly paranoid in a b&b, MSNing a bird.....

If someone silly enough to run an open WiFi access point, then the chances are they aren't smart enough to be able to look at what you're doing

Sensible answer: yes, technically they can. If you're worried you need to be using vpn.

Edited by fadeaway on Wednesday 17th September 22:53

Edited by fadeaway on Wednesday 17th September 22:54

[308mate]

fadeaway said:

308mate said:

If you log in to someone elses Wi Fi, can they see what you view?

Yours, slightly paranoid in a b&b, MSNing a bird.....

If someone silly enough to run an open WiFi access point, then the chances are they aren't smart enough to be able to look at what you're doing

Sensible answer: yes, they can. If you're worried you need to be using vpn.

Edited by fadeaway on Wednesday 17th September 22:53

In fact, they offer the wiFi as a free service - and you have to get the password to get on


So.....could they (hypothetically) see an MSN conversation? Y'know, just out of curiosity....*cough*

[JDMTim]

I'd be careful, some hackers lull people in with free to access wifi

[Olf]

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

[Grumpy old git]

Olf said:

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

<cough> Not that I've ever done it<cough>

Hypothetically speaking, they'd be unlikely to notice unless you're downloading loads of stuff, but I'd go with the above advice. Technically it's a criminal offence (I think?), but I've always taken the view that if someone wants to broadcast their wifi into your house, and not secure it, then it's an open invite to use it.

[Olf]

Grumpy old git said:

Olf said:

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

<cough> Not that I've ever done it<cough>

Hypothetically speaking, they'd be unlikely to notice unless you're downloading loads of stuff, but I'd go with the above advice. Technically it's a criminal offence (I think?), but I've always taken the view that if someone wants to broadcast their wifi into your house, and not secure it, then it's an open invite to use it.

Read the small print - he's having Internet self abuse sessions in someone B&B.

[Grumpy old git]

Olf said:

Grumpy old git said:

Olf said:

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

<cough> Not that I've ever done it<cough>

Hypothetically speaking, they'd be unlikely to notice unless you're downloading loads of stuff, but I'd go with the above advice. Technically it's a criminal offence (I think?), but I've always taken the view that if someone wants to broadcast their wifi into your house, and not secure it, then it's an open invite to use it.

Read the small print - he's having Internet self abuse sessions in someone B&B.

In that case, fill your boots!

[chris_w666]

Copy and paste the msn conversation and we will know if its safe or not.

[sstein]

I'm sure someone has written an msn program that encrypts the traffic between the two having the conversation.

If their isn't such a product I may one

-

Stuart

Edited by sstein on Wednesday 17th September 23:54

[welshbikerduck]

Grumpy old git said:

Olf said:

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

<cough> Not that I've ever done it<cough>

Hypothetically speaking, they'd be unlikely to notice unless you're downloading loads of stuff, but I'd go with the above advice. Technically it's a criminal offence (I think?), but I've always taken the view that if someone wants to broadcast their wifi into your house, and not secure it, then it's an open invite to use it.

Theft is theft. Just because it is there doesn't mean it is ok to take it. Thats like saying well my neighbour left his front door open so i helped my self to his plasma and stuck one into his wife while she was sleeping on the sofa.

Unfortunately for <cough> not you <cough> judges also take that view and it is a criminal offence to steal WiFi and rightly so too.

[308mate]

welshbikerduck said:

Grumpy old git said:

Olf said:

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

<cough> Not that I've ever done it<cough>

Hypothetically speaking, they'd be unlikely to notice unless you're downloading loads of stuff, but I'd go with the above advice. Technically it's a criminal offence (I think?), but I've always taken the view that if someone wants to broadcast their wifi into your house, and not secure it, then it's an open invite to use it.

Theft is theft. Just because it is there doesn't mean it is ok to take it. Thats like saying well my neighbour left his front door open so i helped my self to his plasma and stuck one into his wife while she was sleeping on the sofa.

Unfortunately for <cough> not you <cough> judges also take that view and it is a criminal offence to steal WiFi and rightly so too.

This isnt about stealing anything.

The WiFi is provided by the B&B. The connection is security enabled but the B&B give you the password. The question was, can the B&B then see what the B&B's residents are using the B&B's connection?

[theboyfold]

Out of curiosity how can somebody see what you're up to?

[Grumpy old git]

welshbikerduck said:

Grumpy old git said:

Olf said:

Just work on the basis that you shouldn't exchange anything over the Internet that you wouldn't like being thrust back under you nose one day should something 'happen'.

<cough> Not that I've ever done it<cough>

Hypothetically speaking, they'd be unlikely to notice unless you're downloading loads of stuff, but I'd go with the above advice. Technically it's a criminal offence (I think?), but I've always taken the view that if someone wants to broadcast their wifi into your house, and not secure it, then it's an open invite to use it.

Theft is theft. Just because it is there doesn't mean it is ok to take it. Thats like saying well my neighbour left his front door open so i helped my self to his plasma and stuck one into his wife while she was sleeping on the sofa.

Unfortunately for <cough> not you <cough> judges also take that view and it is a criminal offence to steal WiFi and rightly so too.

What's the view like from that soapbox? It's not quite the same, is it? Are you telling me that if you switched your tv on and suddenly found you could watch all Sky broadcasts for free, you'd immediately switch it off? Not quite breaking into someones house stealing their plasma and raping their wife is it!

That said I don't actually do this, I have my own broadband connection and only realised this was possible when setting up my own wi-fi connection and accidentially logged on to another network; but I was amazed by the number of idiots that broadcast their network and don't encript it. I'm a technical idiot but even I realised the huge potential problems with leaving a network unsecured.

[smutbag]

sstein said:

I'm sure someone has written an msn program that encrypts the traffic between the two having the conversation.

If their isn't such a product I may one

-

Stuart

Edited by sstein on Wednesday 17th September 23:54

It's called SIMP Lite but you both have to have it installed. It's free.

Edited by smutbag on Thursday 18th September 00:43

[J_S_G]

If you're freeloading on somebody else's network, it's verging on the trivial to read anything you type in a standard MSN Messenger window for somebody that knows what they're doing. (Unless you've deliberately installed encryption software)

To be honest, if you've left your PC sitting on somebody else's network, they'll likely have had ample time to guess your local password and remotely install some logging software to track EVERYTHING you're doing on your PC if you've not locked it down or got a difficult to crack one. (Assuming they know what they're doing, again).

Cheers,

-JS

[Meeja]

J_S_G said:

If you're freeloading on somebody else's network, it's verging on the trivial to read anything you type in a standard MSN Messenger window for somebody that knows what they're doing. (Unless you've deliberately installed encryption software)

To be honest, if you've left your PC sitting on somebody else's network, they'll likely have had ample time to guess your local password and remotely install some logging software to track EVERYTHING you're doing on your PC if you've not locked it down or got a difficult to crack one. (Assuming they know what they're doing, again).

Cheers,

-JS

I spend a fair amount of time away from home through work commitments - and stay in hotels and B&Bs - sometimes with free access (through the B&B giving me the WEP code)

My laptop has secure passwords for all users, (min 12 characters long, alphanumeric, upper and lower case, and uses symbols) including the default admin account. If I were to hang off someone's connection to surf PH whilst away, Is there any way of knowing if someone had tried to get in through the local admin's account by trying to guess the password?

Just curious really.....

[J_S_G]

Meeja said:

J_S_G said:

If you're freeloading on somebody else's network, it's verging on the trivial to read anything you type in a standard MSN Messenger window for somebody that knows what they're doing. (Unless you've deliberately installed encryption software)

To be honest, if you've left your PC sitting on somebody else's network, they'll likely have had ample time to guess your local password and remotely install some logging software to track EVERYTHING you're doing on your PC if you've not locked it down or got a difficult to crack one. (Assuming they know what they're doing, again).

Cheers,

-JS

I spend a fair amount of time away from home through work commitments - and stay in hotels and B&Bs - sometimes with free access (through the B&B giving me the WEP code)

My laptop has secure passwords for all users, (min 12 characters long, alphanumeric, upper and lower case, and uses symbols) including the default admin account. If I were to hang off someone's connection to surf PH whilst away, Is there any way of knowing if someone had tried to get in through the local admin's account by trying to guess the password?

Just curious really.....

If the passwords are that secure, they'd be better off trying to hack through holes in Windows than guess that. Unlikely they'll have got through if you're patched and up to date (and running a firewall). Easiest option would be for them to fudge web-pages being sent back to you to drop malware into. To be honest, few places/people I can think of that would really be up to doing that. If you've got a decent firewall installed, you should be able to see who's trying to get access. Even something like the free version of ZoneAlarm would let you know.

Any fears somebody has been doing, or is this really just curiosity? Run an anti-malware program across your PC just to make sure there's nothing running that shouldn't be...

Cheers,

-JS

[Meeja]

Genuine curiosity.

Machine is kept patched up, and runs a third party firewall (installed as part of the work setup - I occasionally use my laptop in the office)

Occasionally I do run spyware/malware scanning stuff, but not that often.

Machine does run pretty slowly at the mo - but having a 40Gb HDD, in need of a defrag, that is over 95% full won't do much for virtual memory really will it?!

[mybrainhurts]

Grumpy old git said:

Mutter

Another old fart...?

Welcome....

We ought to get together to create a spot of mayhem...

:grumblemutterboo: