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WiFi theft
Submitted by acohill on Thu, 07/07/2005 - 09:06.
A Florida man has been arrested and charged with theft of a WiFi signal. Ben Smith was apparently parking outside someone's home regularly to "borrow" the broadband signal.
This may sound inoccuous, but suppose someone stopped by your flower garden every day and cut a few of your roses for their own use? Or if they walked into your yard twice a week in the winter and took wood off your woodpile?
Much has been made of "wardriving," which is for some a kind of sport--driving around looking for open networks to get free broadband access. One might argue that if households are using WiFi without access control or encryption, it's their problem, but that's akin to saying that it is okay to steal a TV from someone's home if the door is left unlocked.
A friend of mine who moved recently was able to connect to four of his neighbor's WiFi signals (he has his own service, so he is not "borrowing" from the neighbors). It's just good policy to take a few minutes to turn on encryption and access control in your wireless router. And it keeps your data files from prying eyes (an "open" WiFi router will often let anyone who picks up the signal get full access to the contents of your hard drive.
Wrong Metaphor
You have the wrong metaphor when you say, "suppose someone walked into your garden and took your flowers or wood." Wifi is not a consumable resource where if I take 1 unit of wifi, you have one less unit. Wifi broadband is a commons; if I take one unit, there is still 100% available to you.
The right metaphor is what if I walked onto your lawn and breathed your air. Would you still have air. Yes. Well what if I read a book with light from your lamp in your window; will your room be darker? Of course not. Wifi is bandwidth; if I use a bit now, you still have 100% bandwidth availability. You are not harmed.
I have not taken a flower or some wood or anything else that you would miss. I have taken a resource that is immediately replenished, just like light and air.
There is more information about this issue at http:://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wifi.htm
OPEN SOURCE AND FREE INFORMATION TRANFER FOR ALL
This is the most pointless argument I've ever heard of. Information and Data Sharing needs to be FREE. who cares about a WiFi being open. People, I agree, encrypt your network. BUT - if you don't care about people being able to access the world wide network we call the Internet or -PORN BOX- then more power to you. The internet contains a plethora of information for the geeks inside all of us. Wardriving -- MAD-CRAZY-FUN, personally, i search for signals, but never use them. It's not hard for someone to encrypt their network, it's in the setup and you can do it right through Windows. If you refuse to take the time to get off your lazy rump to encrypt it, then stop bitching. It's just like the voting argument -- Voters can voice their opinions, you don't vote - you're S.O.L. bud. just my two cents.