WiFI - Your Neighbor's Wireless Connection... Stealing or Not?
Would Using Your Neighbors Wireless Connection Be Stealing...? Without Them Knowing
You live in a neighborhood full of a lot of people, which means some are bound to have a wireless internet router in there home. Many of these routers can reach up to 100 feet if not more, and with the help of access points, and more wireless internet connections, borrowing or stealing is becoming more of an issue.
This has been an ongoing thing, but now it is becoming very serious. People who pay 40, 50, even 60.00 a month for an Internet Service are finding out that there Internet is being used by strangers. How? Well there are programs out there that tell you when someone is trying to access your Internet. Just this month and last month people have been complaining about this, and while routers offer full encryption, they feel they should have to if it is in there own home and they pay for it.
Most of the time when people use other people's Internet Service they don't even say anything, so you would have to have someone knowledgeable at computers to have a program that allows you to find out if your Network is being accessed. Would this actually be called stealing though? The audience was about half and half on this, so what can anyone really do? I say every just puts encryption on there routers so they don't have this problem. Routers are a device that allow you to hook up your Cable or DSL modem to a wireless device (that being the Router), and allowing you to access your Internet Connection via the wireless Router.
On the other hand, half of the people said If the Internet Connection is available and they can access it while in there house than it is not stealing. This is an interesting thought because technically this would be accessing someone else's Internet Connection, when you're not paying for it, so what would it be called than? Borrowing? This is going to be investigated thoroughly, so we will know more about it when they give us an answer.
Until then what could you do to prevent this from happening? Well... Most configurations on a wireless Router enable you to add a password to your network. What this does is, when the person finds a connection to the Internet, once they click it, they must enter a password to access the network. Many people don't do this because they find it inconvenient to typing in a password to there own Internet Service, but really it isn't because many AOL users do so, unless they save the password, which could be dangerous. My opinion? Put a password on it, if you don't want strangers using your service.
Published by Jason Freeden
My name is Jason Freeden. I have been writing for over 10 years. I am a broadcaster & run the "Voices On The Net" Network. I am also a voice over artist. I enjoy listening to music, going to concerts, an... View profile
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- Encryption is offered with wireless Routers, so why not use it?
41 Comments
Post a CommentI USED SOMEBODY INTERNET. I DON'T KNOW WHO'S IT IS, BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH.AND THINK THERE SHOULD BE OTHER PEOPLE OUT THERE SHARING THERE INTERNET TOO. IT WAS A BLESSING TO ME. WHEN I GOT AN WIRLESS INTERNET THAT I CAN SHARE I WILL INDEED DO IT. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH SHARE THE WIRELESS INTERNET, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH SHARING THINGS THAT PEOPLE CAN AND SHOULD GO OUT AND GET THEIR SELVES. IT CALL INDEPENDENT.
if its there, use it
Good point: their signal is coming into my house. How can I steal something that just shows up inside my house and my computer automatically detects it?
what do i need to get my neighbour's wifi signal???????
It is hard to believe that Jason has been writing for nine years. This story was hard to read because of Jason using the wrong word or using a fragment instead of a sentence. Maybe it is time to go back to grammar school.
Hell no its not stealing. I agree with some of you guys. If the owner of the wireless connection has theirs unlocked then its free. They are letting you use it even if they dont know it or know that your useing it. Before had a computer and internet in my home, i used my neighbors connection on my ipod touch. Right now my internet connection is free to use because i feel that since i used my neighbors connection when i didnt have internet i should let them or any one els who doesnt have internet connection use mines.
U can back track the sniffer and use it against them ..... my neighbor did that i HAve amazing pictures of his wife
If they are dumb enough not to password protect it or use a lame and easy password... ITS not stealing..... Thank them for donating to their community...
I receive a WIFI signal in my home. I don't know where it comes from, but I
have the right to use this for internet
access if I desire. What comes through
my window or walls is mine. Possession is nine tenths of the law. Don't want me
to use it? Then don't send it into my home.
I use my neighbor's wifi all the time, I was acutally thinking of canceling my DSL service because I have about 5 different neighbors wifi to choose from. If they don't want people using it, they should put a password on it.