[MariaBeautys]

I'm pretty sure you won't get in trouble for what someone else does on your network precisely because you left it unsecured.

Don't take my word for it though

[Tjfyojlg]

Secure it!

[foI3fKWv]

Pekka makes sense.

Seriously, it's a pretty shitty way to try to get out of feeling guilty. There are other ways of doing that.

[Appenianags]

Absolutely secure. Absolutely. You CAN be held responsible for things done using your network, particularly if there's no easy way to show it WASN'T your computer. (If your router doesn't keep track of MAC addresses for very long, it's quite possible you wouldn't be able to prove it was an outsider.)

Anyway, beyond that, remember that anyone on your router is:
1. Behind your best firewall [your hardware firewall, ie the router]
2. On your LAN, and therefore able to get past some security protocol (many programs, ie FTP servers and such, permit administrative use only from LAN connections)
3. Likely to assume you have a poorly secured computer, and try to hack it. Even if you have a fairly secure computer(s), you are at risk because you're attracting attention this way.

Like Dis says, if you feel guilty, go pay your neighbors or something. Or, even better, show them what WEP encryption is and why they need it. That's doing them a bigger favor than anything else ...

[MiniBoy]

Umm, most people who leach internet don't try to hack it. I have known many many unsecure networks (even people who purposely leave theirs unsecure) and none have had any problems.

They are right that it might be possible for you to get looked into, if there is a child porn person who leaches from you. But they would look on your computer and find nothing, and so you wouldn't get anything but annoyed.

JM

[Nautilus]

If I am arround, I have at times. Once more, I have several freinds who do.

I actually do secure mine, with WPA2 or something.

JM

[cmruloah]

Originally posted by Aeson
The people you "borrowed" from almost surely won't be "borrowing" from you, so compensation in that manner is out. Your only recourse really is to "pay it forward" if you can't identify who it was you were "borrowing" from.

If you feel that "borrowing" was wrong, it seems straightforward that facilitating "borrowing" would also be wrong. You are "giving" it, but those "taking" aren't aware of that fact, They would be behaving as you did. For example, the person you were "borrowing" from might have been leaving it open for the same purpose you are now proposing.

I say secure the network. There are better ways to "pay it forward", people who need help far more than someone looking for net access. Of course we all know that the people who would be taking wouldnt be the same people we "borrowed" it from. POTM is thinking in Kantian terms, bless her heart. Act so you could will it a universal law, do unto others, yada, yada. She got internet service while her parents dithered about the home network cause some kind folks didnt secure their network, and now she feels its only fair to do the same.

I did secure the network using the Wep stuff. I think our router software tracks use. I will look into the other.

Actually paying the unsecured folks, or explaining to them the benefits of being secured wouldnt be that easy. We live in a townhouse development, and it could be any of dozens of folks. I somehow dont think knocking on every door and asking folks if they have an unsecured wireless network is an idea that either POTM or QOTM would be comfortable with.

POTM has decided she might bake cookies for the neighbors instead.

[bredkumanfirst]

From everything you have posted LOTM, POTM seems like an interesting and well developed individual. You must be proud.

Jon Miller

[Ubgvuncd]

People seemed to have smartened up in my apartment building, all of the networks are WEP secured.

Unfortunately for them, WEP is not secure, and I was able to use their "secured" networks until Rogers came to hook me up with cable.

I can also use a WEP-secured network in the basement laundry room cause some chap on the first few floors has a wireless router with WEP.

Also, it's amazing how many people have fetish porn on their computers.

[LkEHaduy]

My network is unlocked and I don't intend to lock it. The girls across the street have a wireless network too though they lock it though I did notice one of them on our network once when their network was down. The name of the computer who was using our network was "TEH GIRLZ" so I'm assuming it was college girls across the street.

[replicamuse]

God, you people are paranoid.

[DebtDetox]

This seems like the right place for this breaking news from Singapore...

Singapore teen first to be sentenced for wireless piggybacking

A Singapore teen has became the first in the city-state to be sentenced for piggybacking on someone else's wireless Internet connection.

Garyl Tan Jia Luo, 17, could have been sentenced to jail but District Judge Bala Reddy said the youth would instead serve 18 months' probation -- including a stint in a boys' home -- unless he was called up for compulsory military national service.

"This is the first case of this nature," Tan's lawyer, Sam Koh, told reporters after the sentence was passed.

According to a court document obtained by AFP, Tan secured access at about 2:00 am on May 13 last year to a wireless router belonging to a person identified as Amos Leong "for the purpose of obtaining computer service" and specifically for Internet access.

Tan earlier pleaded guilty to the charge under the Computer Misuse Act which says anyone convicted of securing access without authority to a computer for the purpose of obtaining computer services is liable to up to three years in jail, a 10,000 dollar (6,490 US) fine, or both.

Reddy told court that a social worker had reported Tan was addicted to online gaming. The judge recommended Tan receive assessment and treatment for the problem, and ordered his parents to ensure the youth has no Internet access during his probation.

Koh told reporters that Tan had gone outside his house to piggyback on any available wireless network because his mother had confiscated his computer modem. He was chatting online when a passerby asked what he was doing, became suspicious, and later called police, the lawyer said.

Wireless connectivity is currently available in Singapore homes, offices and schools but the government recently said Singapore would offer free wireless broadband service in public areas starting this year.

The program would increase the number of wireless hotspots from 900 currently to 5,000 over two years, the government said. And my favorite paragraph from the shorter AP version of the story:

Senior District Judge Bala Reddy cited a probation report as saying Tan had been addicted to Internet gaming at the time of the offense, adding the teenager had "few friends, if not none." http://www.theage.com.au/news/Techno...709757008.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2798003

[lopushok]

Wireless connectivity is currently available in Singapore homes, offices and schools but the government recently said Singapore would offer free wireless broadband service in public areas starting this year. TEH PARADIZE

[Rithlilky]

Toronto's financial distrinct (where I work) has free wireless.

[imnaone]

Most universities do, Ninot.

[911_993_911]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Stop trying to suck up... you still can't date her (provided she is of datable age, which is an assumption I am making) I thought Jon liked boys?

[tomsmuidh]

oy vey, maybe I shouldnta said anything.

[vipBrooriErok]

How old is Jon Miller?

Don't worry, LOTM... he's a nice boy .

[fuslssdfaa]

[Agitoligflise]

Originally posted by Asher

He's already circumcised, so the hard part is over. He just needs to wear the skullcap thing and start pronouncing things with this throat more. Trading one head's endcap for another head's endcap.