QOTD: Have You Ever Stolen Someone's WiFi?

[hemelskonijn]

Let me add that i dont really know if its illegal perse to go all "intrusion detection and prevention expert" on a secure network since recently a guy was prompted innocent in court for decrypting some encrypted tv channels.

The judge ruled that the broadcaster sends it in to his home and what he does with the signal is up to him.
If there ever is a wifi stealing case i guess the same argument is valid as long as you use it to connect to the internet NOT to get data from the connected local network or buy new born on ebay for dinner.

 

[nasherooni13]

haha, my family stole our neighbors wi-fi for a good year, we set up our computer to the closest wall to his house and everything.

about a few months later my dad hooked up a booster to further extend our neighbors wi-fi throughout our house, we had about 3 computers, a PlayStation 3, and a psp hooked up to it, when we boosted it, it greatly reduced the speed but it still got the job done, though PlayStation 3 games would get very laggy at time.

Finally after about a year or so of "borrowing" it, I think he must have canceled his internet or something because while he would send out a wi-fi signal, it simply would refuse to work, So we fortunately got internet

Just for the record though, I always wanted internet, but my parents simply refused to get it seeing as how we got it for free and it technically worked fine lol, that's my story

 

[neiroatopelcc]

By accident yes. But I've never done it on purpose. I have 'hacked into' them with various tools to see if I could, but that's not the same thing really.

 

[apache_lives]

its not my fault wifi accidentally fell into my computer! :O

 

[Guest]

Never done it. Man in the middle damnit! Not safe!

 

[sceen311]

Well I've played a certain incredibly popular mmorpg, possibly involving some amount of orcs, humans, elves, and cow people... on the neighbors internet... wonder how that went for them...

 

[xizel]

Guilty...

 

[captaincharisma]

Why? It's unsecure therefore LEGALLY *not* stealing. Same as a cafe with free wifi.

umm....no most people do not want other people stealing there wifi. it's just that they don't know how to use a router and so so not know that other people can use there wifi too. heck some people just have wireless routers and never use the wireless part and don't know it is enabled or that there router had that option.

 

[smokiespartakus]

I do it once in a while.

But I also wouldn't have protected my own if i knew noone would abuse it. That's unfortunately not the case.

 

[ssddx]

Never leeched or had leechers. My connection is completely hard-wired. I do agree with many of the posters though. I do believe surfing the web on an unprotected wifi isn't bad. It would be kind to drop the wifi owner a line, but that's just me. Utilizing anothers wifi for mass downloading without asking (even on an unprotected line) is just being an ass. Grow up.

 

[vgdarkstar]

I've got a buddy who's modded a satellite parabolic dish reciever (2 actually) to recieve wifi from people... up to miles away. I myself have a bit, but I've had decent internet for years now.

 

[Guest]

I have often borrowed unsecure wifi as I have travelled extensivly over the last couple of years, I would always try to find activly open wifi hotspots first and use them which isn't hard to find in certain metro areas (sydney has a number of free ones all over the city, just scan and you'll find them, certain cities in S.E.A are better than others aswell) I also try to go for resturants and other places that provide it for free to patrons, but when in a pinch and I need to check mail or make a quick voip call I jump on an insecure wifi, but, would never rape the connection with something like p2p or the like.

 

[wkcar]

who hasn't connected to one?
at any given time there will be about 10 wireless network available to my computer, and half of them are insecure...and Sadly all keep their default SSID (linksys/NETGEAR...etc). If its open, then its fair game. People need to learn how to secure their networks just like how they lock their doors and cars.

 

[powerbaselx]

Despite the high number of comments (including this one), i find this QOTD really a shame. Why not ask also if one had already on drugs over the keyboard? ... go ahead, mark 20 times this message useles... :-(

 

[dirtykid]

I have stolen Wi-Fi in a new apartment, before My ISP was able to connect my Cable. I was amazed by the 10 unsecured connections that had high signals

Now, though, I like to annoy others by only applying MAC filtering on my router... Sometimes I'll even leave the SSID 'Linksys' for added fun... 3 different people have told me "you should really lock down that wi-fi that I see with my laptop" but they never seem to be able to connect to it without my assistance

 

[rpoinvil1]

Remember that WiFi is only stolen if you break into a secure connection. If it's not secure then it's just something that you are hopping onto that is just there in the airwaves.
I have not ever stolen anyone's WiFi. My connection is totally free to anyone that wants to use it. My admin passwords are set on all my PCs.

 

[Onus]

[citation][nom]SirCrono[/nom]
...I once saw a connection that shouldn't be there and ban it, it turned out my router lists all clients in one list and not just the wireless ones, so I banned my brother's PC, it took me like an hour to figure out what was happening to his connection.[/citation]

Oh now that's hilarious.
I always secure mine. I see some neighbors' wifi signals, but haven't tried to get on them.
I always get my own, so I've never had a reason to borrow someone's signal. If I ever do in the future, it will be non-abusive, i.e. very low bandwidth like for checking email. I agree with other posters' sentiments that if it isn't secured (at all), it is public; much like broadcast TV. The onus is absolutely on the router's owner to secure it.

 

[Jack64]

I used to leave my wifi open to the neighbors, till the guy next door decided to try to change some setting, so I locked him out of it. the only thing I have is mac enabled and guess what...his isn't on my list.
I still let one other neighbor use it, but she is single and going to college and very attractive. =-) but I'm married and old...but I can dream right??

 

[DjEaZy]

... if the wi-fi is not blocked...

 

[sublifer]

I'll neither confirm nor deny... but we all know the truth.
As someone else mentioned, steal is a bit harsh, besides, I always returned it in the original condition

 

[cliffro]

never stolen WiFi, but I was sharing with my old neighbor after being invited to use it, I went ahead and turned on encryption while i was setting it up. And presently, I have my own, and both computers connected are wired, so I turned off my radio.

 

[Guest]

@dirtykid, anyone else using MAC filtering:
MACs are easily spoofed. The only security worth using is WPA2 with as long a key as possible. MAC filtering, SSID hiding, etc. are utterly pointless and defeated in seconds using a tool like backtrack.

 

[groundhogdog]

I can neither confirm nor deny the report.

 

[Guest]

Yup stealing it at this moment! I don't care and I have a nice yagi I used to crack pretty much all the spots around my house, secured/unsecured. I ain't gonna pay for internet anytime soon.. unless people start to take things seriously and secure their access points, and not used WEP!
Thanks =) ohh and I don't pay satellite TV either.. I'm a real scumbag, lol

 

[Onus]

I have also considered the possibility of opening up one of my routers to neighbors. I wouldn't just unsecure it, I would offer them the keys. The only thing on my DSL connection is a Teamspeak server, so I could easily share that one without opening up my primary cable connection.