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That's completely different. No one would care about a few megs, so it doesn't matter. But using a big chunk of their quota is bad.

That's where you are wrong. If someone only took a few megs from me and that put me over what I am allowed every month and I had to pay the difference why wouldn't I care :confused: Stealing is stealing...
 
It is not illegal to surf on someone's network. It is of course illegal to pursue criminal acts on said network.
By leaving their networks unsecure they give you permission by failing to take prudent security precautions. Kind
of like when you can be charged with leaving the keys in you car's ignition.

The bigger question is why all these neighbors are running unsecured networks. That's pretty stupid.
You could be liable or falsely accused of crimes someone else perpetuated on your network (ie child porn, selling drugs or
financial fraud). Do your neighbors a favor-let them know you can secure the network for a fee, take all the money and then
get the dsl service back!

I can't even find an unsecured network in my neighborhood (I pick up at least 10 networks) anymore.

This is completely wrong... You can and will be convicted on theft even if it is unsecure. Unless it is advertised as an open free network you cannot attach to it at all.
 
It is not illegal to surf on someone's network.

Wrong. Nothing more needs said. You can't possibly be more incorrect.

Or not use wireless ... since all wireless is susceptible to attack.

And wired isn't? :p

That's completely different. No one would care about a few megs, so it doesn't matter. But using a big chunk of their quota is bad.

It's called "theft" for a reason. I suppose you wouldn't mind if I came over to your house and took a LITTLE of your possessions. Just a DVD player and some cereal. And then I'll do it every day until you don't have anything left.
 
Cash and bandwidth are lousy analogies.

It's an ethics problem.
If you knowingly steal bandwidth, thats unethically (wrong)!

We've unknowingly "stolen" bandwidth from a neighbor. My wife's XP computer has a bad habit of connecting to our neighbors WiFi instead of our Airport Express. She can't tell until she tries to print.
 
We've unknowingly "stolen" bandwidth from a neighbor. My wife's XP computer has a bad habit of connecting to our neighbors WiFi instead of our Airport Express. She can't tell until she tries to print.

You can tell it to only connect to your network.
 
Stealing is stealing, whether the stolen item is a physical asset (money, car, tools, etc.) or some non-physical entity such as your neighbors internet service. The comparison of stealing money vs. stealing bandwidth is completely valid. It is still stealing.

It also does not matter whether the item is locked up or not. Taking any portion of someone else's property (or bandwidth) is still stealing. Say I leave a tool outside in my front yard. Someone takes it over night. That is still stealing. Same as if a bank or store accidently left a door or window open. Reaching in and helping yourself to some cash or beer is stealing.

Don't confuse the availability of free public access sites with private access sites where the owner is remiss in setting up his security. The public access sites are there for the public to use. The private owner sites are not free to use without permission. Using them without permission is stealing.

Pointing out lapses in security is both being a good neighbor and will help others protect what is theirs, same as telling a neighbor they left a door open.

I operate a private WLAN that can be 'seen' around the neighborhood. Since I depend on a fixed bandwidth (5G for $60) EVDO service, with very high costs ($.25 / MB!) for exceeding the monthly allowance, I do not allow others to access my service.

I do occasionally make exceptions to help others in a time of need. Kind of like lending a neighbor the lawnmower while his is being repaired. I issue time limited special passwords for this kind of use, and delete the access (password) when the need passes.

I do not put up with anyone stealing my tools, or my bandwidth.

Jerry
 
I know stealing is stealing, but honestly, who would care about a few megs a month? I sure as hell wouldn't.

Here's the thing, if they can get on your network, they can also see your traffic. Would you care if that person "borrowing" a few megs a month was also capturing traffic at the same time? Or all the time?
 
haven't we had this argument about stealing/borrowing you neighbors internet about a million times?
 
haven't we had this argument about stealing/borrowing you neighbors internet about a million times?

We should do something productive, like have an argument over Firefox v. Safari instead

This is a non-issue... wrong, plain and simple
Any other opinion is a rationalization

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
I say do it. You pay way to much in america for the internet. Here we only pay 30 dollar to have 20mb/s and unlimited download.

Here we pay to much for fuel so i guess we should just syphon our neighbours vehicles instead.
 
I just renamed our Wi-Fi network "FBI Mobile Logistics". :D

Our AirPort Extreme's name falls along the lines of something official, as well.

Let's see someone brave enough to hack that. :p

You might, however, get someone with a big ego looking at your network as a nice little challenge :D
 
Cash and bandwidth are lousy analogies.

It's an ethics problem.
If you knowingly steal bandwidth, thats unethically (wrong)!

We've unknowingly "stolen" bandwidth from a neighbor. My wife's XP computer has a bad habit of connecting to our neighbors WiFi instead of our Airport Express. She can't tell until she tries to print.

You can tell it to only connect to your network.

Yes, but ... not so simple
and I don't want to highjack this thread.

What do you mean not so simple. It is very easy to do and will only take a minute; quicker than it took to go get that beer.
 
Cash and bandwidth are lousy analogies.

It's an ethics problem.
If you knowingly steal bandwidth, thats unethically (wrong)!

I have to say this is the only reasonable post in the thread to date. Stealing is stealing is stealing, but the cash analogy only works if the neighbour pays for every gigabyte of bandwidth like they would with electricity or gasoline. If they do, they need to find a better ISP stat. Most people only use a tiny fraction of their bandwidth cap, and it is unlikely that the neighbour is paying any more because of our friend here.

The ethical problem is that the neighbour isn't paying any less either. What makes the OP so special as to deserve free internet? Would that we were all so special. There are certainly cases of neighbours sharing an internet connection and splitting the cost, but their ISP might have a thing or two to say about that. Doing so is almost certainly expressly prohibited in the terms of service.

And yes, if I found that my wireless network was being accessed without my permission, I would do what I could to shut them out.

I may have no love for ISPs, but paying for an internet connection sure beats the alternative.
 
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