Safe Speed Forums

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/here ... 565079.stm


I want to share a portion of my wi-fi band width (15%) I want a wi-fi free world. This action makes every teckie at risk of a theft conviction.

or am I in a minority of one again?

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

No. I inadvertently shared somebodies network last week!

If they dont secure it, then a laptop will seek it out and use it!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

A beneficial side-effect of open wi-fi is an improvement in web anonymity, until they introduce a s172-like law for wi-fi, requiring you to know who is using your network and for what at all times.

i do feel to an extent if they're ignorant enough to leave it open it's fair game...

not sure of the definition of theft, but if the connection is unmetered, and you're not adversely effecting their bandwidth you aren't actually depriving them either financially or in terms of performance.

that said.. there's hoping onto to someone's connection when yours is down.. or you're visiting someone next door... and there's taking the p*ss

Personally, I wish the numpties around me would secure (and preferably hide) their WiFi access points because my laptop grabs the strongest signal (which is usually one of my neighbour's) and although I can browse the Internet, I can't access my own network resources. Although I've "told" my laptop to use my access point, Windoze thinks it's doing me a favour by automatically connecting to whatever it finds (sorry for the anthropomorphisms) and I can't find a way to tell it otherwise

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Will

That's worrying. I often use my laptop in the car when I'm travelling (well when I stopped of course ). Does that mean I am likely to get arrested?

There are open WiFi networks all over the place. I suspect that it doesn't even occur to most of the owners that radio waves don't stop at the walls of their houses.

I dream of the day I can have an A5 size device to send and receive in the street or in my car or round a mates house without major connectivity problems.

It seams that the providers want to charge us about £40 a month for this.
yet it is out there and paid for by about 4 million broadband customers.

or for that matter a sat nav that could pick up the travel situation by wi-fi

It seams this news is a step backwards.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

If the 'victims' were totally unaware of it, I could kind of see the point of this. Though it should be charged as a computer misuse offence, not 'theft' or intent to avoid payment (as there was no fee being claimed).

But if the householders were actually aware enough to know what was going on, and call the police themselves, why didn't they just turn on the security?

Quite. It's a bit like throwing money around in the street and then complaining when someone else picks it up.

I don't see how it could be theft.

Where is the loss?

That depends on the ISP. If I go over 5GB in a month I have to pay for more bandwidth and since I never do myself I would not be too pleased if someone used 10GB on my connection.

(Yes I do have the security turned on )

Willcove, I can help you with your problem, will PM you later in the weekend when I am free and not at work.

Wardriving is nothing new, and as long as people are ignorant enough to fire up a wireless network without activating the simple-to-use security then I don't think thay have any grounds to complain. Now, if someone had hacked into a secure network, that would be another matter, but in the absence of any attempt to deny access, how can there be an offence?

I'm inclined to agree with Robin, that an unsecured network is effectively free for people to use, however if it is hacked or someone has gone out of their way to access it then it changes the nature of what is being done from accidental to deliberate

If a person cannot either set up the security on a wifi or find someone that can then they get what they deserve IMO.

I bet these same people walk around with the Bluetooth on their mobiles constantly switched on too.

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Prepare to be Judged

Hey, I do that! You should see some of the awesome filth I get sent!

Pray that you don't get a virus or that someone's using your phone to make calls then.

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Prepare to be Judged

Yes, for those of us savvy enough, you can disable all services bar incoming file transfer for unpaired devices.

Wireless is the latest trendy way to network your PCs without any of those unsightly Cat5 cables making your house look untidy, a lot of techies stick to cat5 since it's faster so wireless really is the domain of the uneducated consumer.

This in mind, the manufacturers want to make it as easy to get started as possible, otherwise people will take the products back to the shop. There is no motivation to encourage security unless the supplier of your wireless kit is your ISP.

With that in mind, here is a (hopefully) funny when I went to have a look at my dad's wireless.

He's quite excited to have gotten it working, since his computer knowledge really stopped in the 80s, explained that he just plugged it all in, and got online with my step bother's PC and his works PDA, to which I immediately pointed out that I could get online too with my laptop from outside, download kiddie pron and have the police paying him a visit, to which the response was basically "oh shit, good point". I offer to secure his network for him.

One scan for wireless networks, there are two WPA protected ones around, and an unsecured one called "linksys", I ask if he has a linksys router and he confirms that he does.
I change the SSID, setup mac filtering, then ask him to provide an admin password and a WPA key. He does this, then promptly forget the admin password, so I need to reset his router.

I go upstairs, and there is his router. The power supply is not plugged in and also it's a Netgear!

So basically, I've just locked one of his neighbours out of their own wireless access point without realising it. Oops.

Hopefully they'll either take it back or call out someone who knows what they are doing to sort it out, for thelast 4 weeks my dad had been unknowingly stealing their bandwidth too. Guess that makes him a computer criminal now?


And yes, I too use a laptop in the car regularly, usually parking up, dialing up to the internet and looking things up like hotels or petrol stations. I also have a wireless antenna permanantly attached to the parcel shelf for syncing up my MP3 collection from the PC to the car. Guess I'll be getting a tug for that too?

I completely agree with this point made by RobinXe.

Had these people not accepted their cautions, I doubt they would have been covicted of theft.

If done intentionally, it may be considered by some as legitimate, by some as naughty or even dishonest but in no way in my opinion does it constitute theft!