How many people here routinely opt for getting their internet connection from their neighbors unsecured wireless routers? Do we see this as an acceptable way to behave? What would make stealing someones internet more acceptable than stealing their milk delivery, or their mail? Both of those things are left outside where anyone can get them. Maybe it's the idea that there is almost no chance of getting caught. It seems like a concept that has really gained traction, as wireless has exploded in the last decade.

Anyone know how to tell if someone is piggybacking on your router? Is there some way to see what machines are accessing the internet through your portal? I keep WPA on mine, but would like to know how to check anyway.

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It is against my user agreement to allow my router to be used by the neighbors.

However, even with their blessing, I would have to be an idiot to leave it open. You do not know what someone is downloading through your connection, and won't find out until the boys in blue carry off all of your computer equipment. Sure, you're not guilty of anything, but you are still without your computers for a few months.

I don't know which is worse, between the stupidity of someone who doesn't lock their equipment down, or the unethical behavior of those who look for such stupidity.

You tell who's using your equipment by looking at the logs. Logs are often configurable. You may be able to log to a remote (inside) machine, for ease of access.

Here are some instructions http://www.ehow.com/how_4455253_tell-someone-stealing-wifi.html

I have a flat fee on internet and probably only use a few hours a month and have given my neighbors the access code. Did have to relocate my router to a window location. Understand your position. Just dont have any issues with this personally. I dont leave a computer running so there arent any security issues.

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Could you tell me to password-access the router? I would like to do it but do now know how to exactly.

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Ben
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Piggybacking off of your neighbor's unsecured wifi is illegal. It's theft of service even though the wifi is unsecured.

There have been cases of people getting arrested for using their neighbor's wifi for free.

I'm not going to argue the ethics since I do it too when I'm desperate for internet. But there is a security aspect to using unsecured wifi. Read on as it is important.

You should always encrypt your wifi using WPA2. For me I also turn off SSID broadcasting so when someone does a wireless scan my network won't show up.

Finally, yes it is possible to see every user on a wireless network. If you visit the browser default config page you can see a DHCP table of all the computers connected to the network. On my Linksys router I can also see a log of every website visited.

Doing this leaves you open to man-in-the-middle attacks. It is very easy to sniff packets and send false ones back. Websites such as banking, email, and other stuff are not safe.

Do not use unsecured wireless networks unless you absolutely need to. If you do assume that someone is watching your traffic and don't visit websites you wouldn't feel embarrassed to tell others about.

@Benhogen to set up and configure your router go visit the default gateway address. The address is normally either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Just type that into the address bar of your web browser.

To login type this into google "Default router password (make and model)" where make and model are your make and model for your router. On my linksys router it is "admin" and the password is "password".

It will come up with a status page most likely. Look through each menu and familiar yourself with the terms.

If you get truly confused visit the manufactures website, or PM me with the make and model. I may be able to help you out. I'm in class right now, but in a few hours I can explain how to set it up.

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Good to know, I have always kept my wireless password protected, but never took the time to figure out how to see activity through the router.

I use WPA instead of WPA2 because one of my older laptops cannot use WPA2...

I was surprised when reading another thread here, that one of our regular contributors was bragging about stealing internet from local unsecured wireless networks, (2 years without paying) and began wondering how prevalent this sort of behavior is in our society.

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I would definitely keep some type of security on your wireless network; not only does it keep people from stealing your wi-fi, it helps keep them from poking around inside your network if you have any type of file sharing enabled. I had my wi-fi open at one point (to accommodate on of my kids gaming systems), until I got a call from my provider telling me that I had over 750GB of activity the previous month. I assume one of my neighbors was running some type of bit torrent over my network.

None of the security provisions are perfect, but they are usually good enough to discourage the casual thief.

WPA can be easily broken. You should not rely on it.

Rather, you should update the hardware. A new laptop isn't needed, just a new interface. This can be PCMCIA, USB, or even possibly a new internal mini-PCI card.

That's essentially the reason I don't pilfer someone else' signal, I'd rather not leave an opportunity for them to poke around if they saw fit.

Like you said, nothing is perfect. But U-verse is good (at least to a non-techie) about taking the measures to keep the individual wi-fi's secure. There are 6 U-verse signals I can pick-up in the neighborhood, all show as secured. There is one non-U-verse account that isn't secured that I assume is the public-access signal for the DMV office up the street.

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That's so overly broad as to be incorrect.

Your neighbor may or may not care. Your neighbor's ISP may or may not have restrictions on such things (mine doesn't), but even if they do, the TOS applies to your neighbor - not you.

Not really useful. First, it's effective for basic/default scans by a user's OS only. It's trivial to find an SSID that is not being broadcast, with any number of free tools - no "hacking" necessary.

The main reason it's of no use - as you rightly advised, WPA2 should be enabled on the access point, for those that want/need such security. If so, who cares if your SSID is being broadcast? Anyone with sufficient skills to crack WPA2, would easily find your SSID even if broadcasting were turned off.

Anything remotely related to financial/banking is unaffected, as the connections are encrypted over SSL. You can not decipher captured traffic being transmitted over SSL, nor can you perform man in the middle attacks over such connections. And, it's trivial to protect email as well - virtually every ISP/email package allows encrypted connections, as do the major web based providers. GMail for example, can be configured to always use SSL.

For other sites, such as this one - sure, all bets are off. Unless one is dopey enough to use the same credentials for financial/email services as they do at sites such as this, there's limited exposure.

That's simply paranoid. As mentioned above, most anything important is completely safe from prying eyes.

Anyone dumb enough to configure their wireless router as an open connection is getting their just Darwinian reward.

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but this has to be answered.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/07/tech/main707361.shtml

While that may be the case, the same principle can be said about leaving the front door to your home was open and someone let themselves in. It's still not right.

Belt and suspenders. Hiding the SSID will only slow down a hacker because he will have to do more work. Obviously however if someone was truly hell bent on getting something you have it would be only a matter of time.

Not necessarily. Most people do not check to ensure that there is an active SSL connection. In fact in most browsers all you have is a little lock box and the "https". If somebody was malicious enough, all it would take is to force the "www.gmail.com" to point directly to http://www.gmail.com and hijack it from there. Set up a web server and force all current users to a hacked DNS server to point to your special web page.

You missed my point about setting up a web server and pointing unknowing users to a fake web page that looks like the identical one. It's not difficult and entirely easy to set up as I have done before in demos for information security classes.

Your suggestions are dangerous and could potentially leave users with identity theft problems.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

Do you have other people that come over and use the wireless serivce? If not, you could always set you computer(s)/device(s) to each have a static IP, and have the router lock out all others. That's what I have done at home.

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