OT : WiFi

In many locations it's free (airports etc) - particularly where they can use it as a way of getting you to drink more coffee etc. The actual cost of provision is three fifths of bugger all.

Many locations charge. This generally works by a nearby shop (or barman) flogging you a little card with a passkey on it. That gets you x number of minutes.

Signal strength is unlikely to be good enough to penetrate the building and then the side of the ambulance. However, if you get a USB wireless adaptor it should be possible to string the actually antennae bit outside (or even permanently mount an antenna on top of the truck).

Normally with these things you associate to the network, browse to the remote website but get redirected to a payment page where you put your credit card details in. That's all you need to do. I've never used these systems though. Also don't forget that sitting outside with a laptop generally means you can't read the screen!

Most of the pay-per-minute wireless hotspot systems allow DNS traffic to go out but other traffic is banned until you pay, so if you are crafty you can tunnel traffic via DNS for free, but this requires a system on the internet under your control to receive the tunnelled DNS traffic and expand it, which of course is then a traceable system that can be used for a fraud investigation if such a thing were to arise...

I got a wifi sniffer on my GPS PDA, I have found while driving to work about

5 hotspots (private address) with no wep encryption, Is it illegal to log on and surf - check email?

At my works I have wifi with wep encryption, the factory next door has the same but dose not have any encryption, while using my laptop the other day, it managed to log onto there wifi connection, after about 5 mins of thinking my connection is slow today I looked at the network configuration to find I was logged onto the factory next door at 2Mbps- if it is illegal shouldn't encryption be the normal not an option?

128Bit encryption on wi-fi has now been cracked - so basically no one is safe! "WARdriving" is on the increase and with better antennae available it's possible to snoop on any of the 802.11 bandwidths.

some geek in a car outside the house could be hacking you!!!!

Computer misuse act about covers it.

WEP isn't secure anyway - they should use 128 bit WEP /AND/ block any unknown MAC addresses. Still not perfect as MAC addresses can be spoofed, but better than nothing, and good enough for a home network. Any businesses using wireless without further protection deserve all they bloody get.

I got a wifi sniffer on my GPS PDA, I have found while driving to work about

5 hotspots (private address) with no wep encryption, Is it illegal to log on and surf - check email?

At my works I have wifi with wep encryption, the factory next door has the same but dose not have any encryption, while using my laptop the other day, it managed to log onto there wifi connection, after about 5 mins of thinking my connection is slow today I looked at the network configuration to find I was logged onto the factory next door at 2Mbps- if it is illegal shouldn't encryption be the normal not an option?

(sorry if this shows up twice my server is playin up)

This has shown up twice now, I think your server is playing up...

Theoretically yes, it actually comes under 'abstraction of electricity' which believe it or not is the offence used to cover fraudulent use of telephony systems. In practice the fact that someone has not botheres to set up encryption suggests that they would be highly unlikely to notice casual use of their set-up by a another party let alone capture the information necessary for a successful prosecution.

There is a local "expert" in my area charging people to "fix" their computers and connect them "securely" to broadband, which includes putting in wireless ADSL routers and connecting their desktop computers to them via unprotected, unencrypted wireless LANs instead of a simple ethernet! Incredible.... My next door neighbour has been connected up by this dummy, the wireless link between the desktop computer and the ADSL router is all of 7 inches long, the ADSL router is sat on top of the desktop! No encryption, no protection, and VNC running with no password... Amazing. The cynic in me thinks that this muppet wants to build a pool of victims for his/her own nefarious activities.

In answer to your question, it may be illegal, who's to say! The issue is that while they may not have intended to set their system up to give you access, the fact that their system broadcasts offers of IP addresses to all and sundry could be construed as an offer on their part. It's a legal grey area from the look of it. At any rate, they are unlikely to ever know if you do check your email via it, but at the same time they could have set the system up deliberately to capture the credentials of people who try to check their email via their open link ;-)

A friend of mine went war-driving from his work place to mine, all of 5 miles away. He sniffed nearly 20 wide open access points.

Steve

Here in Germany people start using WEP more and more, but still lots of open acesspoints available. I like it :-)

regards - Ralph

According to the "World Wide Wardrive", the percentage of access points that are secured has actually fallen rather than risen! You'd think that people would get the message but apparently not.

Here there seems an up and down - whenever the disounters Aldi/Lidl/Norma/Plus sell some WLAN equipment at dumping prices some new open WLANs pop up. After a time a part of them has totally gone, some others switch to encryption of some kind, and a few remain open :)

regards - Ralph

Yeah I've come accross quite a few of those. Hats off also to ClaraNet who seem to have no idea of how to set up a wireless network.

Bollocks. They're paying for it, you're not. That's the equivalent of leaving your front door open and finding someone inside when you get back, making themselves a cup of tea and watching your telly. They purchase the service, you don't. Ok, so they're bloody stupid for leaving it insecure, but that's not the point.

And bandwidth is not free or as cheap as it's currently being sold retail. For all of you with broadband connections, enjoy it while it lasts because in the next few years, the market's going to readjust itself and bring costs back into reality from the gutter where they currently are.

Cheers, Aled, delivering a daily dose of misery. :)

'Course it could be a honey pot...I've always wanted to set one up, see what wanders in as it were.

Cheers, Aled.

Our work ISP merged with Claranet earlier this year and have been going a bit downhill ever since. Before the merger Netscalibur tech support was A1.

No, the issue arises because you are pretty much asking people to connect to your network, so with your analogy it's like you inviting people in for a cup of tea and trying to sue them for tresspass if they accept. You blast your network out into the street so any passing laptop picks it up whether they want to or not, and then you offer then an IP address. Many will accept by default.

Don't go confusing moral with legal ;-)

On or around 14 Dec 2004 09:43:59 GMT, Simon Barr enlightened us thusly:

same happened to the lot that got merged into pisscali.

and wanadon't's tech support is less useful thana chocolate fireguard, 'cos the latter would be edible.

Hrm I see this with many large-ish ISPs....I'm just hoping ours doesn't go that way and we can control the growth to the point of still providing a quality service.

Cheers, Aled.