"Stealing" Internet Connection

[VanCitySportsGuy]

http://www.katu.com/stories/87037.html

The fact that this 20yr old kid is a sex offender is disturbing but I don't see him breaking any laws.

[Skerik]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

This is really big over in Europe, too. Over there the squatters even mark the outside of the buildings with chalk and marker for places where they know they can squat on a signal.

Unless the company has it written into some legalspeak that only paying customers can use their bandwidth, I'm not sure they have any right to complain - especially when they're broadcasting the wireless signal out into the parking lot and off the property they actually own.

You could probably do this with 99 out of 100 wireless home networks in any given neighborhood. Is it legal? Probably not. But if someone is dumb enough to broadcast an unsecured wireless signal outside their home so that any passerby can hop onto their network, they pretty much deserve what they get.

[RubenDouglas]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

how would one secure their wireless network? i dont want my neighbors doing this crap.

"The way to protect yourself is to change your wireless router settings to only allow the computers in your home to access your airwaves.
"

Is that pretty easy to do?
do you input their IPs?
I know some friends at an apartment who got free internet from their neighbor for awhile. finally they let him know about it and helped him fix it

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

From a store owner's standpoint, I don't even know if it's possible to secure the connection so only customers inside the store can use wireless internet.
The only I way I can see them securing the connection is to provide a password to the paying customers throught their reciept. Of course the password would probably have to be changed everyday which would be a huge hassle. This still wouldn't prevent somebody from just asking a customer what the password is and then using it.

I'm amazed at how many people don't secure their connection. I put in a password right away once I got wirless internet so people can't use my connection for free.

[Skerik]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

I thought of the password-through-receipt idea too, but that presents two problems. One is that you actually have to have a person who's tech-savvy enough to change a router password once a day, at each of your stores. And the other is that people like the guy in the truck would have to spend about two minutes combing through a trash can before they found a receipt with the password.

I understand it's the principle of the thing, but if this store has the bandwidth to support a store full of customers all hooked up to the internet, the amount of bandwidth that this one guy was stealing is negligible. Of course, once you get 5, 10, 15 people outside all sitting on the connection, then you have a legitimate concern.

It's also worth noting that this guy was a sex offender, so he may not have been using his computer to research his fantasy baseball team if you know what I'm sayin'. And by using someone else's wireless connection for illicit activities, that removes a level of personal liability for this guy.

[mjb2124]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

There are many ways to secure the wireless signal. Businesses use all kinds of things to secure their wireless networks (RADIUS servers for one).

Most business access points/ports are controlled through a main switch. Therefore the access points/ports are "dumb". You have to change settings on the switch which then updates the access points/ports. I've controlled these at a few different companies and it's much nicer than updating access points individually (as I did for one company 6 years ago).

As for a home user, here's what I recommend:

1. Turn off DHCP and set everything to a static IP
2. Obviously change the default ESSID
2. Enable the highest WEP/WPA available on your access point
3. Use MAC address authentication on your access point so only the MAC addresses that you want using your signal, can use it.

Just doing these three things will stop just about everyone. Of course, a hacker using a sniffer and other devices could get in (he'd also have to clone his MAC address to one on your allow list), but I don't know any hackers willing to go that far unless they really wanted something.

As for the story, I think it is illegal to use another person's unsecure wireless signal. I know they've been trying to pass new laws (or have passed the law) which states this. Tough to prove though as the user would have to have enough technical skills to catch the person and get log files detailing the unauthorized access.

[AugustWest71]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

TOS Violation


-kdre

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

There are many ways to secure the wireless signal. Businesses use all kinds of things to secure their wireless networks (RADIUS servers for one).

Most business access points/ports are controlled through a main switch. Therefore the access points/ports are "dumb". You have to change settings on the switch which then updates the access points/ports. I've controlled these at a few different companies and it's much nicer than updating access points individually (as I did for one company 6 years ago).

As for a home user, here's what I recommend:

1. Turn off DHCP and set everything to a static IP
2. Obviously change the default ESSID
2. Enable the highest WEP/WPA available on your access point
3. Use MAC address authentication on your access point so only the MAC addresses that you want using your signal, can use it.

Just doing these three things will stop just about everyone. Of course, a hacker using a sniffer and other devices could get in (he'd also have to clone his MAC address to one on your allow list), but I don't know any hackers willing to go that far unless they really wanted something.

As for the story, I think it is illegal to use another person's unsecure wireless signal. I know they've been trying to pass new laws (or have passed the law) which states this. Tough to prove though as the user would have to have enough technical skills to catch the person and get log files detailing the unauthorized access.

Pretty much what joeboo said in terms of securing your network. My roommate followed the same route in setting ours up. I'm convinced we had people "using" our wireless connnection b/c our download speeds have gotten a lot faster.

[MassNole]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection



How about going back to this if people jacking the signal is a problem.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

I can actually pick up 2 other neighbor's wireless signal at anytime. Both are wide open. Mine is quite secure, it would take someone really trying and wanting to get on my network to get on it.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

joeboo -

I'm aware of all those methods of securing home wireless networks, however, I have a question that you or one of the many other knowledgeable IT OS'ers might know...

When friends and family ask me to secure their wireless home networks, I tell them to set up WEP encryption passwords. The problem with doing this is that they get stuck with generated 10 digit hexadecimal keys like GF566BBA for entering the password. This is difficult to remember and results in them writing it down on a piece of paper - not very secure (although one could argue that somebody who enters your home and sees the paper would be relatively secure).. The point is, I'd like to setup easy to remember passwords for wireless networks.

On a standard Linksys access point, is there a way to set up a secure password that is simply character based, and can be remembered by total computer noobs?

On a personal note, I prefer MAC address filtering because it provides me with the most control over who's getting in. Of course, if I am helping out my dad's friend, he probably doesn't know bupkes about networking, so I'm not gonna have him entering people's MAC's on a config page..

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

joeboo -

I'm aware of all those methods of securing home wireless networks, however, I have a question that you or one of the many other knowledgeable IT OS'ers might know...

When friends and family ask me to secure their wireless home networks, I tell them to set up WEP encryption passwords. The problem with doing this is that they get stuck with generated 10 digit hexadecimal keys like GF566BBA for entering the password. This is difficult to remember and results in them writing it down on a piece of paper - not very secure (although one could argue that somebody who enters your home and sees the paper would be relatively secure).. The point is, I'd like to setup easy to remember passwords for wireless networks.

On a standard Linksys access point, is there a way to set up a secure password that is simply character based, and can be remembered by total computer noobs?

On a personal note, I prefer MAC address filtering because it provides me with the most control over who's getting in. Of course, if I am helping out my dad's friend, he probably doesn't know bupkes about networking, so I'm not gonna have him entering people's MAC's on a config page..

My WEP is 26 digits. I have it on a file on a thumb drive if I ever need it. But you should only need to enter it once into the router and you're done.

[mjb2124]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

joeboo -

I'm aware of all those methods of securing home wireless networks, however, I have a question that you or one of the many other knowledgeable IT OS'ers might know...

When friends and family ask me to secure their wireless home networks, I tell them to set up WEP encryption passwords. The problem with doing this is that they get stuck with generated 10 digit hexadecimal keys like GF566BBA for entering the password. This is difficult to remember and results in them writing it down on a piece of paper - not very secure (although one could argue that somebody who enters your home and sees the paper would be relatively secure).. The point is, I'd like to setup easy to remember passwords for wireless networks.

On a standard Linksys access point, is there a way to set up a secure password that is simply character based, and can be remembered by total computer noobs?

On a personal note, I prefer MAC address filtering because it provides me with the most control over who's getting in. Of course, if I am helping out my dad's friend, he probably doesn't know bupkes about networking, so I'm not gonna have him entering people's MAC's on a config page..

Like EG said, you should only need to enter the WEP key one time and then it should stay. That is, if this is what you're talking about. To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a way to change the WEP key to something character based either (as it's stored as hexadecimal 0-9, a-f).

[RubenDouglas]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

couldnt the companies see whos using the connection and someone block him?

[mjb2124]

Re: "Stealing" Internet Connection

couldnt the companies see whos using the connection and someone block him?

Possibly, but there usually isn't someone monitoring wireless traffic 24/7/365. Just too many other things to deal with.

Plus it would just be putting a bandaid on the problem. The individual getting blocked could do many other things to get around it. Using a server to authenticate users (RADIUS Server) is typically the most secure way (along with WEP).