Am I being monitored for a government experiment?

[Ben E Lou]

So my neighbor behind me was just flying a remote-controlled helicopter. Naturally, I went outside to check it out and meet him. He BUILT that sucker himself. It has a small gasoline engine, fully-functional rotors that can pitch to the point that it'll fly upside down, the whole nine. This isn't a toy; it is a small freakin' helicopter. He says he has three small 'copters and nine small airplanes, all built himself. :eek:

Anyway, as we met and talked, he mentioned that he does network security for the DoD. I didn't think much of it, until I came back in and looked at my laptop sitting there and thought, "Hmmmmm...that non-password-protected wireless network I've picked up titled 'free4u'. I wonder..."

So, I just did a very crude check. In front of my house, I get "average" signal strength on this network. Near the back of my house, it is "very high." Sounds like the odds are that the wireless network is based in either the house directly behind ours (ie DoD boy), or one of the adjacent ones, huh?

So, my question is this: which of the following is more likely:

A. He's just a very nice nerd who shares his government-paid-for wireless network with his neighbors.
B. He's getting his jollies by seeing who will surf the 'net on his wireless network, monitoring what they do, and hacking into their systems for fun.
C. Those helicopters are going to be painted black one day. He's doing something shady for the gubmint.
D. It's just a coincidence. The wireless network is coming from another house.

[terpkristin]

Can't it be all of the above? ;)

Knowing the "nerd" culture, I'd guess it was a combination of options 1 and 2. I read something recently about a way to make peoples' surfing upside-down, or do other things to the websites they access when they leech your wifi:
Prank on WiFi leeches

(Note: I am in favor of keeping your WiFi network open so that neighbors and passers-by can use it. But I still think this is funny. -- Mark) http://www.boingboing.net/200608031509.jpg Ntwiga (http://www.ntwiga.net/blog) says: "Your neighbors are leaching off your wireless internet connection.
What to do? Well this guy took the high road. He suggests that rather than shutting down access to the router, have some fun. First, separate the networks into trusted and untrusted segments. Then, send all traffic on the the untrusted segment to kittenwar.com
Or even better, set up a squid proxy that takes all images coming in to the untrusted segment and turns them upside down before serving them up. Or just make all the images blurry . . . to create "blurry-net".

Link (http://www.ex-parrot.com/%7Epete/upside-down-ternet.html)
posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:11:47 PM permalink (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/03/prank_on_wifi_leeche.html) | blogs' comments (http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&sub=mtcosmos&url=http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/03/prank_on_wifi_leeche.html)

Perhaps he's doing some of that.

I love meeting people who make planes and stuff. On my trip to Michigan a few weeks ago, I met a guy who was building a full-size small plane (i.e. he'll be able to get into it an fly it) in his garage. Way too cool.

/tk

[cartman]

Does he look like Randy Quaid? Does he mow his lawn with a V8 powered push mower?

If so, then you are Richard Pryor from the movie "Moving"

:D

[finketr]

my boss builds hiw own RC planes...

and a colleague of mine also flies RC planes and isjust learning how to fly RC helicopters.

[Joe]

Jimmy Stamps put him up to it

[Daimyo]

Even if its not his wireless network, if its configured wide open I'd bet pretty highly he knows about it and is "playing" with it anyway. Unless you don't value your privacy its pretty foolish to leech off the wireless network of someone who knows what they're doing (ie, someone who works in network security).

[Coffee Warlord]

Unless you don't value your privacy its pretty foolish to leech off the wireless network of someone who knows what they're doing (ie, someone who works in network security).

Don't be so sure he knows what he's doing. There's a TON of absolutely moronic government employees in the tech areas.

[Daimyo]

My philosophy is that when it comes to the security of your personal information and privacy, ALWAYS assume the "bad guys" know what they're doing.

Having said that, I work in the field and I've met a bunch of the government types at conferences/training/etc and I basically agree with what you're saying. :)

[Critch]

#202477 +(5365)- [X]

(Mootar) morons.
(Mootar) these people who live in my apartment complex are connected to my wireless
(Mootar) they must think they're super-cool hackers by breaking into my completely unsecure network
(Mootar) unfortunatly, the connection works both ways
(Mootar) long story short, they now have loads of horse porn on their computer

[flere-imsaho]

^^ I love that one. :) I know some guys who have done similar, as well.

Anyway, I think it's probably a combo of A and B. You might want to ask him if its his network, but at the very least I wouldn't do anything on it that's personal. It's pretty dangerous to use an unsecured network.

[MIJB#19]

E. You're paranoid. ;)