Wi-Fi Freeloader Arrested

That is true. Not only that they have access to all sorts of settings and data on your computer (assuming the Guest login isn't locked down that tight). I would say the "Guest" access on your local computer is a far greater risk than someone using your bandwidth. Now if someone accessed your computer through the open AP, THAT would be grossly invasive and without a doubt illegal.

However I still see people accessing your bandwidth no more invasive to your system or resources than those projects where you share processing power with others (SETI, etc). That is of course until a bandwidth hog gets on your AP. Still it's easy enough to cut them off.

just because I leave my house unlocked doesn't mean you can come in unless I allow it. Say I leave my hose on outside my house all day long. You're not allowed to take a drink from my water without my permission.

LLLL, it's the permission that is the issue. The only reason encryption is needed is people like you and me. It's to keep people's data and connection safe from wardrivers that are illegally searching for open networks.

And the others... Just because someone is foolish or naive doesn't mean that it is legal to take their stuff. The 7-11 car example is really, utterly stupid. Yes, it is still a crime to take someone's car EVEN IF THEY LEAVE THE KEYS IN IT WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING. In the eyes of the law you should be in control of the impulse to take what is not yours, even if it is right in front of your face, wiggling its tight little butt.

Even if someone drops their ATM card and the pin is 1234 doesn't mean you can take their money.

I do the occasional hop-on to open networks around my neighborhood just for fun, but I don't have any illusions about what I am doing. I know that it is illegal just as when I cut the coax running through my apartment building and installed a splitter for 6 months of free cable. I don't have to justify what I am doing.

Free hotspots are another story all together.

Every damn Wi-fi 'theft' article that dslr posts ends up with 100 funked up analogies...I didn't even get 5 posts down and I was sick of reading.

When you say this, it sounds ignorant. I can't stand people who buy a $70++ piece of equipment (router) and don't know the first thing on how to secure it, or what "WiFi" means. If you are dumb enough to leave it wide open, more power to the person "stealing" it. I think it's right, because if that person cared enough about what someone else is doing on their network, they would secure it. END OF STORY. The REAL person they should sue is the router manufacturer, for sending them an "non-locked down" router. If they took a small amount of assembly line time to send each router with a unique default WiFi password, and a quick start guide on how to configure their machine, none of this would happen. Instead of sueing the person "stealing" the connection, why not make a law stating you need a license to use a computer or router. Then people will read the book, understand a little, and get rid of problems like this, or face fines and jail time. People are so "techno-stupid" these days they have no business purchasing stuff like this, yet we keep making all these advances in technology without requiring them to be up to speed.

(Sorry for the rant, but lets look at it this way, if an ISP left the default settings including passwords and usernames, set for their routers, all hell would break lose, and everyone here would say "what idiots". This is no different, it's the users "responsibility" to keep this from happening, it even says so in the manual).

Am I a freeloader for listening to the music coming out of my neighbor's window? I didn't pay for it.

Am I a freeloader for breathing the oxygen coming out of their plants in their garden? I didn't pay for that either.

I'm using their resources without their permission or their knowledge.

In most cases, connecting to someones WIFI isn't depriving that person of anything. It's a different matter when speed bottlenecks and caps are involved, but otherwise, what damages are there?

If someone used someone else's link for checking email or browsing the web, with zero impact on the source, exactly what harm is caused?

well in my opinion i find it to be illegal or perfectly fine depending on the activity at the time person was found using wifi if they were downloading warez/etc it would piss me off if they were just a person from another city or country sending an email or some im's home i wouldnt care my cousin used to prop her laptop up on window cill and she would pickup someones wifi connection (this is in spain) and then in a way she kinda got her punishment in a diffrent city. sitting on steps kids stole her laptop probally the people owning the connection saw her using it and called the kids up to go get it. but in reality nobody knows. so my opinion if your using it for something kosher go ahead use my wifi but if your pulling something illegal just keep off my connection

Here's a counter argument. If you forget to lock your front door, does that give permission for anyone to take whatever's inside? (Feel free to include your address)

said by JofCore :

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No, but if you bring all your stuff into my house, should I assume that I'm not supposed to use it? And would it then be a crime for me to use your stuff, since you are the one that brought it to my house in the first place?

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If your parents taught you any manners at all, then yes. If a guest brings something over to your place, you are NOT given implicit permission just because the item was brought over to your domain. You are still expected to get permission from the owner before using whatever it is.

Not in Florida. We have "idiot" laws. If you leave your keys in an unattended car, you could get a ticket, or goto jail. I think thats the way it SHOULD be.

No, but that gives the insurance agency a reason NOTto issue any reimbursement checks because lack of security/carelessness. So how can you take someone to jail for your stupidity???

If it's an encrypted broadcast, such as Satellite TV, and you break the encryption, yes, illegal. Otherwise, it's called "Free To Air" or FTA. Next analogy please....

Wifi is always encrypted.

I am conducting a survey on this topic. I will be interested in getting some feedback from this forum.

»www.surveymonkey.com/s.a ··· 71873952

Uh. The difference? You gotta be kidding me. He was probably arrested because in most locations child porn is illegal.

In Va the code is: § 18.2-374.1:1. Possession of child pornography; and is a felony crime. So yeah he was most likely arrested for accessing child porn for personal pleasure which is not a legit purpose at least in the U.S. Because apparently certain people are allowed to view child porn for research.

If you don't understand what you are buying then read a book and get a clue, otherwise don't bother with it. Computers demand a certain know-how & knowledge. If you don't possess it then learn or don't bother. We don't need laws to govern every little damn detail because people don't know how to operate equipment. If that were the case MS should have been out of business long ago because they have grossly neglected the security in every version of windows, with exception to maybe 1.0. You can patch every flaw that currently has a patch and still be vulnerable to an attack. So what? You going to sue MS for negligence? Even with closing up a wifi network if someone really wanted to get in they could. WIFI AS IT IS, IS NOT SECURE! NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO. Its open-air...the whole idea of wifi is insecure.

Now one argument that could be used in the defense, which I'm unsure whether it has been posed or not...

Say I were to have a database that allowed employees to telnet into it, as long as they know the correct IP as it is not advertised on the net. Yet a guest account was left for those employees that forget their passwords. And a non employee was to access the database. That guest account is not saying come one come all and join in. If unauthorized access was still achieved by that non-employee I'm certain that a court would find a case in the favor of the company as its intention was not to allow others outside of the business access the site.

Granted that is somewhat of a poor example.

so many message were deleted because? Why doesn't anyone speak up? If they can do it to a few people, their going to do to us next when it's convenient.

... because I asked them to delete them.. a particular user decided to attack me, and added nothing to the forum topic, and I asked for the posts to be removed. Since they didn't get removed, I attacked back in public.

It got the job done. Conversations here get heated and to ME, that's fine. I could care less if someone says I am wacked in my views and opinions just so long as someone contributes something to the topic at hand. We all will dissagree at times, but to simply attack another member here for pure entertainment? Well, it shows that someone here has nothing better to do, or is purely brave while sitting in their protective apartment behind a keyboard and internet connection instead of saying such things to someone's face.

It is more akin to painting your bike lime green with a spray paint can and leaving it unlocked in the cities that have implemented the bike sharing system and then saying "it was never my intent for my bike to be a communal bike."

(for those who are not familiar with the community bicyle programs, see »www.ibike.org/encouragem ··· .htm#usa)

Many routers even give you the ability to keep your wifi channels bandwith down and give the system a protected channnel so that your system doesn't grind to a crawl when you choose to participate in such a give away.

Geez, with all this arguement going on, it looks like too many people aren't reading their products' Users Guides. In the case of Linksys wireless routers, it's right there in the user's guide - stating the importance of securing the Wireless Access Point, and how to do it. I took that to heart with my WRT54G and did these:
1. Changed the SSID to something obscure (I used a Japanese word written in bad english plus some numbers, and it gets changed every week)
2. Turned off SSID broadcast
3. Disabled Secure Easy Setup
4. Enabled WPA and used a randomly generated passphrase (which is a jumble of numbers and letters over 10 characters long, and gets changed every week)
5. Enabled MAC Address Filtering (I have 2 Linksys Wirless NIC's, one for each of my 2 notebooks, and the WRT54G will only accept the MAC addresses of those two NICs).
That way no one's going to use my WAP without my permssion and it's physically impossible to break in, unless someone has a really sophisticated hacking machine that does some really powerful cryptographic attacks (which would be illegal of course, since it would violate the DMCA or other applicable law against cracking secured/encrypted stuff).

Dude you are so far off on this it is laughable.

First off, if someone is purposely sharing their WiFi then they don't really fall into anything this subject is about. How can you steal something that is being given to you? It simply does not apply so you mentioning it (and in such detail) is a waste of space.

Secondly, I would be willing to bet that if you review the TOS of your ISP it would include a clause that restricts you from sharing your connection as you do.

Third, your lame excuse of it allowing it by default is simply that... lame and does not warrant a counter argument.

It is like that in most places to bhe best of my knowledge (don't even get me started on that law), but that is not the point. You still can't take that car for a joy ride just because it is there.

And with that, young Skippy25 successfully dodged any rational debate.

Lets play devils advocate:

So if I go to my neighbors house and tap into his phone line its ok too? The box is just sitting there and nobody told me I can't do that.

If my neighbors car is running, but they are in the house, can I use it to go grocery shopping?

When everyone abuses things, they make laws against it.

Im sorry, but maybe they dont know how?
but theft is theft regardless if they secured the signal or not..

You have to realize it there is no law saying a person has to secure their wifi signal... so it really isnt your place to tell them to secure it..

if your stealing a wifi signal on which your not paying for it is theft..

Although i do agree if the public library does offer free wifi access then you should be able to use it anywhere within the range of the signal

This whole discussion is about the legality of someone accessing bandwidth from a WiFi router. I think it's worth noting. Especially when you make blanket accusations on anybody who says it's not illegal. Legally you shouldn't be liable for accessing an open port or having an open port to be accessed. Do you even know how simple it is to secure a wireless router? It's so easy this discussion shouldn't even be happening.I have reviewed the TOS of my cable Internet service, thank you (Earthlink). Only business accounts that have username and passwords set up with the service must comply with notifying Earthling of unauthorized usage. Also unauthorized usage isn't specifically defined as someone other than the customer accessing the bandwidth and they don't define the authorization being at the ISP's discretion.Lame? It's exactly how a wireless router works. I am not allowing free access by default. Netgear, Linksys and D-Link are the ones who set up their routers to be wide open by default. Do you even know how a wireless network works or have you actually worked on a wireless router? I really want to hear your counter argument on this because what I stated was a fact.

You want to say someone is a thief by accessing a wireless Internet connection. Sure some of these people might be too cheap to buy their own bandwidth, but you can't count the entire wireless community as such. If you don't like people accessing your bandwidth then just put a password on it and stop all this grandstanding. I gave you very valid points and all you want to do is ignore the facts and solutions. If you are fighting on mere principle then you better understand other principles are in play, and you better be prepared to respond logically. Name-calling and insults don't win debates.

I just wish my neighbors would quit parking their cars in my driveway and putting food in my refrigerator. I hate the intrusiveness. Plus, it's taking up all my space.

You totally missed my retort. Basically, instead of making this illegal, make leaving it unlocked and unattended illegal, THEN make it illegal, so it won't get abused as just another reason to sue someone. This way the legit HotSpots can be ran without the user worrying if the owner will sue. Just ADMIT IT, it's not difficult to lock it down, if you don't, you deserve the abuse. Thats all anyone here is saying. This is beating a dead horse. IT'S DEAD ALREADY, YOU CAN'T SUE IF THE SIGNAL CAME UP ON MY SCREEN AND OFFERED TO CONNECT ME. Blame the router owner, or the O/S manufacturer for making it so easy to "accidentally" steal (or intentionally steal, whatever floats your boat.).

I see this issue from a slightly different perspective. Others wi-fi rights end at my property line. I resent my children being bombarded by EMR from half a dozen neighbors 24-7. So, for those of you whining about your bandwidth being stolen I have 2 suggestions: use a protocol with a shorter range or hard-wire your network. Otherwise watch out for the day that you get sued.

No, more like the court would not do much unless $10,000 of damage was inflicted. Then they would probably fine you for leaving personal info in the open, unsecured. Very poor example, because you would walk away just as screwed as you were when the data was stolen...

Call me low life then, but MY view is my neighbor is being generous because they don't use their connection much. I love free internet. I loved NetZero for free dialup, and I love both of my neighbors (3 total hotspots, 2 un-secured) for giving up the internet to at least 4 other PC's NOT part of their network. I was nice enough to change the default password, knowing that they could simply remove it by holding reset for 15 seconds. It's been a year now, and nobody has bothered to reset the admin password, because nobody knows jack about their router. Ignorance paid off, because I protected him in the end from keeping his router from being "owned" by someone who had malicious intent (can we say "upload corrupt firmware?"). Get off your high horse, start flaming the manufacturers for their carelessness in forcing the user to protect the WiFi. Default passwords are stupid, we need unique identifiers for each unit sold to force protection.

So, someone leaves their front door open, it's ok to go in and use their home and to be a nice guy, you will lock their door and change the locks too, right?

Again, you miss the point and I could really care less to get involved in another one of 12,000 threads about is it right or wrong to use someone's connection that you don't pay for or own.

My point is plain and simple, but you too over looked, people here are talkinga bout what's legal and not when it's clear that there really is no law defined, yet.

However, what you are doing by making changes to their network router? I can guarantee you that if you were caught, you'd be facing Johnny law. I believe this is preying on the weak?

This has to be the worst example of justifying bad behaviour ever.