QOTD: Have You Ever Stolen Someone's WiFi?

[OwinC]

No I have not stolen someones wifi. Nor have I borrowed someones wifi.

 

[tayb]

If taking movies, software, games, and music you don't own isn't stealing I can hardly imagine those same people admitting that taking someone else's internet access is stealing either. After all they had to leave it unencrypted for that to be possible... sort of like taking a car with the doors open isn't actually stealing it... just "borrowing."

 

[NuclearShadow]

I have never stole anyone's wifi and I say this with 100% truth. I don't have any portable devices that use it except for my wife's laptop which doesn't leave the house anyways.

 

[curnel_D]

[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]If taking movies, software, games, and music you don't own isn't stealing I can hardly imagine those same people admitting that taking someone else's internet access is stealing either. After all they had to leave it unencrypted for that to be possible... sort of like taking a car with the doors open isn't actually stealing it... just "borrowing."[/citation]
Wow, that's the worst analogy I've heard ALL DAY!

 

[rubberjohnson]

[citation][nom]Curnel_D[/nom]Bandwidth is totally in infinate supply. Bandwidth is a renewable resource, unlike things like oil, metals, ect. (Which happens to be the problem with the ISP's bandwidth cap explanations)[/citation]
So everyone in the world can download everything they want at all times without their speeds slowing down? Give me a break, there are limits. available bandwidth

 

[IronRyan21]

My neighbhors r dumb. Half the block has unprotected wifi. I don't "use" other wifi cause I prefer fast speeds so im wired.

 

[curnel_D]

[citation][nom]RubberJohnson[/nom]So everyone in the world can download everything they want at all times without their speeds slowing down? Give me a break, there are limits. available bandwidth[/citation]
That's a limitation of ISP hardware (Or software) And would be a problem with or without people 'borrowing' WiFi.

 

[neon neophyte]

i agree with others. canadian law agrees as well. open wireless cannot be stolen.

if you leave your wireless unsecure, you meant for people to be able to use it.

and yes, i use my neighbors wireless when my internet goes down sometimes.

 

[Dreasconse]

Well, technically I got premission.
Does it matter that it was a month after I started?
Or that it went on for 2 months?

 

[maverikk]

Once at my exgirlfriend's apartment I wanted to go online. So I turn on my laptop and start looking for a connection(just moved in and haven't set up the net). I was browsing the neighborhood and found one with an incredibly stupid SSID. I just had to mess with this guy. So I accessed his router. Created a lockout period for 8pm-10am, added google, msn, myspace, facebook, cnn, and several other main sites on it and then set a password on his router panel access.

I was amused by this, for the next two weeks I noticed the setting weren't changed at all. I saw a geeksquad bug in the parking lot one day. Assuming he had someone fix it.

lawl.

 

[mavroxur]

If connecting to two open access points with a pair of wireless NIC's and load balancing them is wrong, I dont want to be right.

 

[danhitchcock]

not only have i barrowed, but one time i accidently changed the password and network name of the wrong router... too many unprotected linksyses!!

 

[Guest]

borrow and crack wep everytime i move, WPA takes to long so i just avoid it.

 

[cruiseoveride]

Stolen is not the right word. "Shared" is much better

 

[fuser]

Only when I'm surfing for beastiality videos.

 

[zebow2002]

I make a hobby out of it to be honest. When I go fix someone's pc I always scan for wifi while waiting. When I get unsecured access and the router has a default password then the party starts. I have some area's in my town where you will find SSID's like "FREE INTERNET""INTERNET FOR EVERYONE""SURF HERE FOR FREE" ETC. I also change the admin password for the router so a factory default needs 2 be done. Anyhow, great fun, don't leave the door open. I never touch secured networks. Most of the time the networks are secured when I come back a few weeks later, about 60% of the time.

 

[neon neophyte]

i agree with others. canadian law agrees as well. open wireless cannot be stolen.

if you leave your wireless unsecure, you meant for people to be able to use it.

and yes, i use my neighbors wireless when my internet goes down sometimes.

 

[matchboxmatt]

I live in a downtown area with several available connections. When you're choosing between free unprotected Wi-fi and paying $40 a month, the choice is easy.

I use it all for everything.

 

[Daller]

A unprotected wifi basically broadcasts: "Hi! Here I am! Connect to me! My ssid is as follows: *****."

Connecting to such networks is not stealing. Networks with hidden ssid's, passwords or MAC address filtering is a whole other matter.

 

[doomtomb]

Of course but it's a pretty petty crime

 

[vertigo2720]

I have several times, but only as a last resort as I usually use my smartphone as an internet connection when needed.

One time my friend and I found someone stealing HIS WiFi and, of course, immediately investigated their shared docs folder for anything interesting. Turns out they had a printer shared, so we connected to it and printed a page off telling them to get off the WiFi. The offending computer disconnected within a matter of minutes. It was pretty funny 😛

 

[my_name_is_earl]

One time I went down to Houston where my cousin live. 8 of 10 houses has open Wifi. How can I not resist beside I only do some surfing and checking email since I'm pretty far away from home.

 

[Guest]

In my opinion, you can only steal someone's wireless if they have it encrypted. If it is open then they are actually delivering the wifi too you.

 

[hemelskonijn]

Every one steals wifi sooner or later!

Its not really stealing any way as long as you don't need to hack social engineer or catch magic packets to connect to the network its perfectly legal to use it (not for illegal purpose that is).

There are people like me who even have a dual setup so they can share limited bandwith with whomever wants or needs to use it and use the rest for my own network.

Also about 18 of the 28 wifi nets around me are installed by me making some extra money fast that way.
I have those keys and yes at some point i did use some of those keys to connect some people at my private lan party to the internet because my multi-wan setup was clogged (yes a lan party can take a DSL-DSL-Cable connex down if you start updating at the same time 😀).

 

[gcolefla]

One time I visited home for the weekend with my computer, I was wondering why the internet was so damn slow. I looked under my network connections, and my computer hit a two bar unsecured network down the street instead of my dad's protected fios. My computer likes to steal that much.