Stealing wireless- can they tell?

[OllieBirmingham]

Was round a mates house the other day and my laptop found an unsecured network and was able to connect. Would the person whose wireless it was be able to tell someone was 'piggybacking' and would it cause them any problems? He was going on about getting a laptop and enjoying 'free' internet, whereas I was advising him against doing this, but couldn't really offer any reasons as to why it would be a bad thing. Thoughts?

[bingbong]

Yes it is possible to tell, fairly easily on most routers. Does anyone ever check? probably not.

[off_again]

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

[Dare2Fail]

If I connect to my router it will show me who is connected at any given time. They may not be able to figure who was piggybacking, but they would know that someone was. That said, if they haven't secured their network (unless they are choosing to let everyone use it) then they probably don't check their router either.

[Silent1]

Depends, but if you hit upon my network you could find your laptop compromised very quickly.

[maix27]

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

The A-Team?

[OllieBirmingham]

Silent1 said:

Depends, but if you hit upon my network you could find your laptop compromised very quickly.

Wooah there. I don't want pictures of my laptop in the papers falling out of a strip club.

[off_again]

maix27 said:

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

The A-Team?

Good idea, but don't need to. Firstly there are plenty of things that can be done to stop it there and then, and don't forget that its illegal. Obtain the evidence, store it carefully and prove your tracks. Then go to the police and dob the git in....

I have little sympathy with anyone like this. Given that you can get broadband for a tenner a month or even mobile broadband for £15.... no real excuse for anyone to do this, other than the fact they are tight gets and think they are being clever....

Sorry, but its black and white to me.

[sstein]

OllieBirmingham said:

Was round a mates house the other day and my laptop found an unsecured network and was able to connect. Would the person whose wireless it was be able to tell someone was 'piggybacking' and would it cause them any problems? He was going on about getting a laptop and enjoying 'free' internet, whereas I was advising him against doing this, but couldn't really offer any reasons as to why it would be a bad thing. Thoughts?

For a start, log onto your email and you will most likely be sending your login details plaintext, so it would be trivial for someone to grab your email address and login details.

They can also see what sites you are visiting, how many of them use logins ? Do you use the same login for each that you used for your email? If so, even if the login to the site is sent securely they can still just put in your email password and see if it works.



-

Stuart

Edited by sstein on Friday 19th September 18:00

[Landlord]

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

Would you know how to find out?

If yes - are you seriously saying you'd have an unsecured network in the first place.

Morally - yeah, it's wrong because they're paying for it and you're not. That aside, it's not like you're depriving them of anything - in real use - by using their part bandwidth (awaits adenoidal pedants - prepare to be ignored).

[OllieBirmingham]

Would it have any effect on their connection speed etc? What if you lived close to say, a Starbucks with wi-fi. Would it still be wrong to steal their wirelessness?

[rsv gone!]

maix27 said:

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

The A-Team?

Off, would you bust down the doors (ooer) of all of your neighbours to find the culprit?

[sstein]

OllieBirmingham said:

Would it have any effect on their connection speed etc? What if you lived close to say, a Starbucks with wi-fi. Would it still be wrong to steal their wirelessness?

Some people pay for a limited connection where the bill gets more expensive if they go over 'x' Gb of downloads a month. You may be costing them money!


-

Stuart

[Neil_H]

If they log into the router they will be able to see what devices are connected.

Don't do it, it is theft and ISTR someone getting the proverbial book thrown at them for this recently?

[outlaw biker]

You can get a prison sentence for that.

[eldar]

sstein said:

OllieBirmingham said:

Was round a mates house the other day and my laptop found an unsecured network and was able to connect. Would the person whose wireless it was be able to tell someone was 'piggybacking' and would it cause them any problems? He was going on about getting a laptop and enjoying 'free' internet, whereas I was advising him against doing this, but couldn't really offer any reasons as to why it would be a bad thing. Thoughts?

For a start, log onto your email and you will most likely be sending your login details plaintext, so it would be trivial for someone to grab your email address and login details.

They can also see what sites you are visiting, how many of them use logins ? Do you use the same login for each that you used for your email? If so, even if the login to the site is sent securely they can still just put in your email password and see if it works.



-

Stuart

Edited by sstein on Friday 19th September 18:00

Bit like leaving your front door open had having a camera to catch the bandits?

Easier just to secure it so no one can get at it, rather than play vigilante or hacker.....

[scorp]

Landlord said:

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

Would you know how to find out?

If yes - are you seriously saying you'd have an unsecured network in the first place.

Morally - yeah, it's wrong because they're paying for it and you're not. That aside, it's not like you're depriving them of anything - in real use - by using their part bandwidth (awaits adenoidal pedants - prepare to be ignored).

Morally speaking, I guess its a bit like leaving your front door unlocked, its a bit dumb but still doesn't give any random stranger the right to come in and help themselves to your stuff.

[Landlord]

scorp said:

Landlord said:

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

Would you know how to find out?

If yes - are you seriously saying you'd have an unsecured network in the first place.

Morally - yeah, it's wrong because they're paying for it and you're not. That aside, it's not like you're depriving them of anything - in real use - by using their part bandwidth (awaits adenoidal pedants - prepare to be ignored).

Morally speaking, I guess its a bit like leaving your front door unlocked, its a bit dumb but still doesn't give any random stranger the right to come in and help themselves to your stuff.

Not really - because "helping themselves to your stuff" implies loss of possession. It'd be like leaving your door unlocked and someone coming in and using your toilet.

[Justayellowbadge]

Landlord said:

scorp said:

Landlord said:

off_again said:

If it were me I would - and I would take action....

Would you know how to find out?

If yes - are you seriously saying you'd have an unsecured network in the first place.

Morally - yeah, it's wrong because they're paying for it and you're not. That aside, it's not like you're depriving them of anything - in real use - by using their part bandwidth (awaits adenoidal pedants - prepare to be ignored).

Morally speaking, I guess its a bit like leaving your front door unlocked, its a bit dumb but still doesn't give any random stranger the right to come in and help themselves to your stuff.

Not really - because "helping themselves to your stuff" implies loss of possession. It'd be like leaving your door unlocked and someone coming in and using your toilet.

I suppose it depends on the bandwidth you are paying for.

On unlimited it wouldn't cost you anything. If you had a 1 gig plan and the £5 a meg thereafter, the story would be different.

[kambites]

I don't think anyone who hasn't bothered to secure their network is likely to know how to check whether someone else is connected to it. Yes it's easy enough to do on most routers, but then so is encrypting the network.

Not that any of the common wireless encryption protocols will stop anyone very determined for more than a few minutes. WEP is useless.