Free PH access
Discussion
Just checked into my hotel in Brighton (and when I say hotel I mean a 30 quid a night B&B) switched on my laptop to playback some music. Upon booting up, to my surprise, the wi-fi network adapter found a network and connected without me doing anything! 
So, I have absolutely nothing of anything of any importance to say but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to post on PH at the expense of someone else’s bandwidth
Think I’ll download some porn later
So, I have absolutely nothing of anything of any importance to say but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to post on PH at the expense of someone else’s bandwidth
Think I’ll download some porn later
depending on where you are in brighton you should be able to connect to www.piertopier.net/ for free
t1grm said:
Still working....
According to the network properties I’m connected to “NETGEAR”. That’s what I get at home. So someone next door obviously has a Netgear wireless router that they’ve left on default settings.
Erm, that person might end up out of pocket because of what you're doing.....which basically is theft. Not a massive deal, but I'd be a bit annoyed if my bill increased by several Earth pounds.
t1grm said:
Still working....
According to the network properties I’m connected to “NETGEAR”. That’s what I get at home. So someone next door obviously has a Netgear wireless router that they’ve left on default settings.
I've got the option of Wilma (mine), belkin54g and BTVOYAGER2100-7D right now. Both of them are usable when "testing" my wireless card
There are a couple of others with no encryption or MAC address filtering which are only hiding their SSID too.
Lots of fun to be had should one not have plenty of bandwidth + unlimited downloads.
t1grm said:
Just checked into my hotel in Brighton (and when I say hotel I mean a 30 quid a night B&B) switched on my laptop to playback some music. Upon booting up, to my surprise, the wi-fi network adapter found a network and connected without me doing anything!
So, I have absolutely nothing of anything of any importance to say but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to post on PH at the expense of someone else’s bandwidth
Think I’ll download some porn later
Is that the one with the big banger outside "£30 a night B&B" v. close to Pier etc
parrot of doom said:
Erm, that person might end up out of pocket because of what you're doing.....which basically is theft. Not a massive deal, but I'd be a bit annoyed if my bill increased by several Earth pounds.
If its on broadband its not going to make a huge difference, unless he decides to download 15GB of porn in one night
Might be worth telling the owners of the place in case the network is the B&B's and they have important data on that is accessible.
It's not unknown for BT to reconnect a disconnected phone line for no apparent reason, without being asked and without then sending out any bills. I know someone who had free phone service for ages due to this. It was someone making a reverse charge call to the number that eventually put the kybosh on it, but they still didn't send out any bills.
My network is as secure as wireless can be (WEP, SSID broadcast off and MAC filtering on, passwords all changed regularly to non-obvious strings) but the flats opposite mine obviously don't bother, one of my bridges regularly offers me the option of Flat 7 and Flat 9!
Can't remember if it was someone on here or another forum who lived next door to a McDonalds and used to leach their 2Mb pipe all the time, didn't bother to buy his own broadband, had a free one courtesy of the golden arches.
Can't remember if it was someone on here or another forum who lived next door to a McDonalds and used to leach their 2Mb pipe all the time, didn't bother to buy his own broadband, had a free one courtesy of the golden arches.
markmullen said:
Can't remember if it was someone on here or another forum who lived next door to a McDonalds and used to leach their 2Mb pipe all the time, didn't bother to buy his own broadband, had a free one courtesy of the golden arches.
Was a mate of mine, had unlimited Openzone access via his work so just used the connection the Mc'D over the road had constantly - 24/7
Matt
Having just got my wireless network up and running, this thread worries me a little.
As I don't need the wireless part just yet, it's switched off in the settings, however, should I need to switch it back on, what do I need to do to secure my network?
All this MAC stuff is a bit beyond me considering I set up the network with a weeks worth of click and see if it works.
As I don't need the wireless part just yet, it's switched off in the settings, however, should I need to switch it back on, what do I need to do to secure my network?
All this MAC stuff is a bit beyond me considering I set up the network with a weeks worth of click and see if it works.
Byff said:
what do I need to do to secure my network?
The golden rules are:
1. Enable WEP
2. Hide your SSID
3. Switch on MAC address filtering.
Taking them in order (and I have just cut & pasted this from what I wrote in a previous thread):
Arcturus in a previous thread said:
1. You can encrypt all signals between your Wireless Access Point (WAP) and your laptop/PC by using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). This is an encryption algorithm that is part of the 802.11 wireless networking standard and is built into all the wireless networking components that we are talking about. The snag is, that by default in most components it is turned off and you the system administrator has to turn it on.
2. All WAPs broadcast their name or SSID (Service Set Identifier) to the world. This is logical since it makes it easy for other computers to find the network. Once your laptop/PC has been introduced to your WAP, I would suggest you turn off SSID broadcast on the WAP. That way, a passer by will have a hard time knowing that your network exists, because you WAP is no longer shouting its name across the rooftops.
3. Most WAPs support MAC control and again I suggest you use it. Every single network card in the world, whether wireless or wired, has a unique identifier or address embedded in it. This is called a MAC (sorry cant remember what it stands for). By enabling MAC control in your WAP, you can tell it to only speak to network cards that you have authorised - ie you have entered into the WAP the unique identifiers of the network cards it can communicate with. By doing this, even if someone does find your network, the WAP will refuse to talk to them unless you allow it.
If you tell us which wireless equipment you are using, someone will come along and tell you where to find and how to change these settings.
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