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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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.