If it just so happened that you were on holiday, you turned your laptop on to look at some pictures and it connected you to a wireless network automatically, what would the legalities of using this purely imaginary network to access the internet be?



Adam

P.S. This imaginary network would be a companies one rather than a personal one!

[Edited on 23-10-06 by phelpsa]

I do it all the time. If they leave it open, it's fair play as far as I'm concerned!

Chris

I agree - go for it

Just make sure your laptop is secure as some leave the network open deliberatly to infect the computers who connect with a trojan or stuff like that.

Some companies do leave part(s) open on purpose so visitors can access the internet etc.

Whilst you're not a visitor to them, if you were they'd be happy so can't see why you shouldn't go for it.

Legally I think it can be considered as theft or hacking. That said, companies who don't understand enough about networks and wireless to lock it down properly almost certainly wouldn't know how to analyse the traffic on it and twig that people are using it, unless their proxy server (if they have one) starts ringing bells about the sites you're visiting.

As Werner said, some are honey traps, so make sure your own laptop is protected before using them....

People often refer to 'Hotspots' of wireless network access. PC-World(yuk) sell a wireless network strength keyring - most useful so I'm told.

I've seen groups of ubergeeks sitting in shop doorways at night all on their macs because they've found a good unsecure network.

Cheers

are you on holiday phelps??

How did you post the message?

didn't happen to be over an unsecure network was it???

Erm.... no comment

I am indeed on holidays, in Hastings! Not bad but its constantly tipping it down with rain!

My laptop is about as secure as secure gets!

Adam

[Edited on 24-10-06 by phelpsa]

I actually built and wired a PC into my last car with a touchscreen fitted into the dash. I used to get internet all over. Just pull over somewhere and get cracking. Incidentally outside PC World you always seem to get a signal, a weak one, but still. No one never said nowt to me about using their wireless.

It is counted as theft but also comes under the Computer misuse act.. so you get treated like a naughty cracker by the courts.....

Basically it is very dodgy! and dont forget that it has been known for naughty people to deliberately leave wireless router open so that when people connect they can perform their nefarious deeds on your PC! Hope you have a good firewall!

My mate has just moved house into a kind of cul-de-sac at the end of the street. He can detect and use 2 or 3 of his neighbours wireless networks. A good job too since his own router is malfunctioning . In fact while i was there trying to sort his one time, it took me a while to twig i had logged onto one of his neighbours routers and started tinkering, and not his own!

Liam

Yup... Comes under the Computer Misuse Act.

You can also be done for theft of electricity - its the old way of prosecuting for it.

It is illegal to access networks that you do not have authority to do so.

Also as noted above, watch for the "reverse hack" on YOU!!.

Other than that, there are many about, and people are not aware of the problem or of its existence.

Just consider a Paedo sitting up the road, downloading and paying for porn using YOUR connection. They wont catch him. But it definately traces back to YOUR connection.

Now consider you have a sensative job. ie a head teacher, policeman, Doctor, Play Group assistant or leader etc etc, You will have a devil of a job proving it was not you. Even if you do the bad smell will linger, and dog your life.

I put this to a policeman I met up with. He didnt see the problem of someone nicking a bit of his bandwidth, and wasnt even bothered, until I mentioned the above.

Rules... (not definative - But a good starting point)

If you have a router with a Wireless port, and dont really need it. TURN OFF the wireless port in the config.

If you really need Wireless access:
Set up the connections, then TURN OFF the BROADCAST SSID.
This stops your router saying "YooHoo Here I am" every 10 minutes or whatever its set to.

Turn on WEP (as a minimum encryption level)

Use the highest Bit encryption (BT Home hub as 64 bit as default which is about as watertight as a collander!) but at least there is something as a default rather than being wide open.
Use the Maximum amount of characters for the password that it allows.

If it has WPA encryption, use that instead as its better than WEP, and safer. Again use the highest bit level available on your router.

If it has MAC filtering, use that as well.
Ever network card and device has a MAC code its 8 sets of Hex digits like 01:FE:9F etc etc. feed these into the router, and ONLY allow those devices to connect to the router.

BAR everything else.

At the end of the day you wont stop a determined person with the right knowlege and tools. However, any level of security will make it harder for them, and hopefully they will pass you by and look for an open connection.

You know it makes sense.

We use all the things you mentioned at home. The MAC one is the best.

Adam