Giving wifi password to neighbours?

Giving wifi password to neighbours?

Author
Discussion

AlexC1981

Original Poster:

4,903 posts

216 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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My neighbour asked for mine as his is on the blink and a new router will not be delivered for a week. I said no on the basis that I have a NAS drive with all my personal details and stuff on it. I have to admit I was horrified at the thought of someone possibly having access into my NAS drive and PCs, but I felt awful about refusing as he is a good neighbour. He said he needs it to send invoices for work and I think he's got money trouble at the moment.

I'm actually considering nipping to Argos and buying him a dongle with a couple of gig on it. Computers don't appear to be his strong point and I doubt he is even aware of that as an option.

Now I'm wondering if he's wondering what I've got on my network that's such a big secret. hehe



anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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I guess you can’t set up a guest account etc on router? Or let them use your phone hotspot?

98elise

26,365 posts

160 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Why can't he use his mobile as a hot spot?

ApOrbital

9,939 posts

117 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Tell him no.

David87

6,648 posts

211 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Worst “I have a gigantic porn collection” post ever. hehe

In seriousness, I wouldn’t give mine out either. The dongle is a nice idea though.

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

171 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Tell him to use his phone.

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah

12,786 posts

99 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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I once did this for a neighbour, who had just moved in. He was on a 3 week wait for his wifi set up, and I trusted him. Plus he drove a DC5 Teg, so he was sound in my eyes biggrin

The huge, if unlikely risk, is that if they use the internet in an illegal manner, it is your IP address attached to such activity.
The worst case scenario is that he is in to downloading kiddy porn, on your IP address, your door receives the beg red key by the police, word spreads, you get bricks through your window, a kicking when you go out in public etc.

As I say, unlikely, but worth the risk of fking up your life for?

hyphen

26,262 posts

89 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Setup a guest network if your router supports it (Virgin media one does)


alorotom

11,907 posts

186 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Not a chance I would personally

Sgt Bilko

1,929 posts

214 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Many a person has been arrested after being incorrectly identified as linked to downloading things that are illegal and involve young people. It all comes clear later on that they have lent their password to a neighbour.

Puggit

48,350 posts

247 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
quotequote all
Ahbefive said:
Tell him to use his phone.
This!

Who doesn't have a smart phone that can be used for tethering?

S6PNJ

5,156 posts

280 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Do you not have an old router? or does he have an old router from a previous ISP? They should work with his username/password and it saves waiting for the 'new' router to arrive. I think I have about 6 or 7 old routers sat waiting to find a good use for!

boxst

3,699 posts

144 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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I would let them, although would set up a guest network as mentioned above.

Yes, he could download dodgy porn or films, but it is unlikely and again if your router supports it you can log their web history.

toastyhamster

1,660 posts

95 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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If he has a laptop there's plenty of places with free wifi, or yeh, dongle.

AlexC1981

Original Poster:

4,903 posts

216 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
quotequote all
His mobile phone has run out of data...

I was not aware of the guest wifi option, so thanks for that! I have gone into the router settings (it's a Vodafone Huawei model) and ticked the Split SSID option and it has set up a guest wifi and I have set a password. There were not any options to restrict access, but I have connected my PC to the guest wifi and I no longer have access to the NAS drive, so that's good.

I'm still not sure if it is entirely safe and I am not sure about giving him the guest password. The NAS drive is cable connected to the router if that makes a difference.

AlexC1981

Original Poster:

4,903 posts

216 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
quotequote all
toastyhamster said:
If he has a laptop there's plenty of places with free wifi, or yeh, dongle.
It's a desktop PC. I have an old Talk Talk router he could use, but neither of us would know how to set it up and I'm not entirely sure if that's the main problem as I don't think he knew the right English words to describe the problem.

Chrisgr31

13,440 posts

254 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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If they were both on BT you can use part of the Hub to provide a wi-fi hotspot which would enable you to do what you want.


anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Op said NO
It was he right thing to do

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
quotequote all
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
The huge, if unlikely risk, is that if they use the internet in an illegal manner, it is your IP address attached to such activity.
A number of years ago, some friends of mine used to find it amusing to open up a laptop of whichever friend's house they were in and use google to search for 'child porn'.

They would find it hilarious and make jokes about trying to get each others house raided by the police.

I dont hang around with them anymore.

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah

12,786 posts

99 months

Monday 23rd October 2017
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Lord Marylebone said:
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
The huge, if unlikely risk, is that if they use the internet in an illegal manner, it is your IP address attached to such activity.
A number of years ago, some friends of mine used to find it amusing to open up a laptop of whichever friend's house they were in and use google to search for 'child porn'.

They would find it hilarious and make jokes about trying to get each others house raided by the police.

I dont hang around with them anymore.
They sound like lovely people. No they don't actually, they're sick fks.