'Borrowed' Internet connection!

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Noel, Phoenix is not necessarily supporting your exact argument, he said this...

I see you have posted a link to the article you mentioned...

As I stated earlier in this very thread, the law is not globally uniform, legislation changes from country to country and in some countries, state to state. Just because something is illegal in Florida, does not mean it is illegal where you live. People smoke pot openly on the streets of Amsterdam and it is not a crime.

It does strike me as odd that all wireless equipment is open/un-secured by default.

 

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Good lord! What did I start!

Well I should say that no I didn't break the law, I got his consent to use the connection. I maybe 'bent' the law when I checked to see if he had enabled a password on his router.

Innitially I maybe broke tha law when seeing if I could connect, but did disconnect before speaking to him.

Anyways, all fully legal now, I got my own connection back up.

 

That is a bargain! As for the Wireless set-up, isn't it amazing how many people's access points are free to all!

 

Noel, sorry m8 but you ain't got a case to rest! The article refers to Florida, USA and we are in the UK. The UK may have a special relationship with the US but their laws certainly don't apply to us!! So thank you and good day!

 

damn! what did i miss!

really interesting read guys.

 

Why? Until just lately the vast majority of the personal computers sold in the world came open and un-secured to any degree by default, so why should the fact that wireless routers come unsecured be considered odd?

I consider it much odder that the 95%+ of all personal computers, and many servers also, would be sold that way without a goverment inquiry into why this would be as it is very detrimental to society as a whole.

 

Noel, my argument wasnt backing you up at all, and im really not to pleased with the pissing contest going on in this thread, if certain members cant have mature conversations then the mods will have to perform house cleaning on threads
please behave like adults
i dont give a damn whos is bigger

most things come unsecure by default, generally because the end user needs to know how to get to an admin level
you install linux it asks for a root password
you install windows it asks for an admin password

the problem is, uneducated userbase generally stops there and works with these privelaged accounts

i must say alot of wireless equip now days is coming secured out of the box
there are about 20 connections in range of my laptop, A/B/G and only one is unsecure, 4 even have there SSIDs not broadcast (including mine), unsure how many are using crap wep and how many are using WPA/WPA2 but they all show up with padlocks

 

I agree with Gav that this is an interesting and worthy conversation but its time to realize that we don't have to personalize conflict. That is, you can disagree on a subject and keep it unemotional. This is one of the most "user-friendly" discussion boards on the Internet. Let's keep it that way, shall we?

 

well at the end of that day I know I wouldnt be happy if someone was using my wireless connection without my knowledge...but then they wouldnt anyway cos a) I dont use wireless and b) if I did...it would have encryption...end of...however i believe this will be the last we hear of this as there are clearly different sides to it but I am sticking to my point...and will defend it for as long as it takes...but thats it for now...

 

That's a point, Phoenix, but it wasn't my point.

Until recently all Windows pc's and servers came with almost all services started by default. IOW's it came with all the windows and doors not only unlocked, but advertising themselves as wide open.

I fail to see much difference in principle between that and wifi coming insecure out of the box. Both are going to be used be an uneducated public that doesn't really care about security until they have something bad happen to them.

So, why the brouhaha over this when the computers themselves were shipped so that they would advertise things most users didn't even know existed by default in most cases? It's the principle of the thing that I'm looking at, not the specifics.

 

I am necessarily turning my back on it...I am just saying for now I wont be adding to my comments cos clearly everyone has a different view on this...but as I said I will fight my corner for as long as it takes with anyone (not just in the forums) who might think its not an offence to use an open wireless network...besides we have discussed this at work and just about everyone agrees thats its bad to use an open wireless network even when customers call us we dont encourage them to use open networks that dont belong to them...cos if we did we as a company we will be in big trouble...and since Apple is more US based well I cant say anymore than I already have...

 

Guys, I think it's maybe time this Thread has run it's course. Some good points were raised. However, it has obviously caused some disagreement between those involved. Let's hope we can agree to disagree, as I really don't want to have to close the thread - CF prides itself on the fact that this is something we seldom do, and only as a last resort.

Thanks