MattyJ wrote:
My garage is on my property. You have to come over to use it. See the
difference?
So, if you're asleep and don't know I'm there, I'm not trespassing?
They have to trespass onto my property to do so. If I continually put
my trashcan on my neighbour's property, I shouldn't be surprised if it
gets filled (or thrown though my window). However, if my neighbor
empties his trashcan onto my property, and I find something useful in
the trash, guess what? I keep it.
I tried to be specific in saying it was garbage night, your trashcan is
on the curb. Once it is there it is no longer on your property.
(technically, the trash is then public property and you can take what
you want anyway.) My point is you're paying for a service that it is
understood, in modern society, that everyone has to food the bill for. I
admire your generosity and wish I lived next door to you. It would save
be about 100 bucks a quarter.
Oh for Pete's sake. Enough of the trashcan already. The trashcan is in
no way like the Wifi. Nothing much is like Wifi. Why can't we discuss
Wifi in terms of...I don't know... Wifi?
If someone's connection is being saturated then maybe that someone
should SECURE that connection, rather than whine about stolen bandwidth
which was obviously not so important to have been protected to begin with.
And I guess I'd get free Wifi to boot. What a deal!
Sorry. *My* AP is running secured with WPA2.
Have you actually ever used Wifi?
Constantly, but I guess I use one of those new fangled, complicated
operating systems where I actually get to figure out what it's doing at
any given time.
Well, then you're painfully behind the times my friend. It's no longer
rocket science. NetworkManager is not all that complicated. It'll
connect for you. Windows? Does the same. All you need do is turn the
computer on.
Let's see: on my XO I see a little circle. I click on it. I'm connected.
I don't even know where it's at, let alone who's AP it is. For all I
know if might be an intentionally public hotspot. How do I tell?
Do you live above a Starbucks?
And as a matter of fact, I live a mere block from a Starbucks - and I
have a T-Mobile account. :P And if you've ever connected to a Starbucks
AP, you know that it's not an open connection.
I live in fairly dense metro San Diego urban neighborhood. Lots of AP's
around, most of which are unsecured. If one's actually used Wifi much,
they'll agree with another poster that one often has to put more effort
into NOT connecting to any available AP. Since that's the way Wifi is
supposed to work.
I would presume you turn on your wireless
because you have your own home network, or do you just assume someone
nearby will always have an open network available to you?
My AP is always on. But indeed, there are always plenty of open AP's
available as well. I choose to use my own only because the things I do
on my laptop at home demand a bit more security. I have no idea what the
owner of an anonymous AP is doing with my packets on his end. I'm
concerned with protecting data, not his bandwidth consumption. That is
his problem. Protecting *my* AP's bandwidth is my problem, not someone
else's.
The real neighborly thing to do would be to say "Hey, you know you're
AP is running wide open such that I can use it, and I'd suggest that
if you don't want me or anyone else to use it, you'd better secure it.
Otherwise I'm going to continue using it, and I thank you in advance
for your kind generosity. Want a beer?".
EXACTLY what I meant by 'opportunity for education', which I guess is
really what I'm getting at. 'What's the harm if they don't know' is
always a bad argument (and why I jumped into this thread when I did.) I
have no problem going over to a neighbor to tell them they have an
insecure network. I'm not the kind of guy to then use that network, but
if you do your due diligence and your neighbor has no problem paying for
your network connectivity, then go right ahead. A bona fide 'something
for nothing' situation.
-Matt
Of course, as has been pointed out, that's easy to do only if it's known
whose AP belongs to whom. It is not uncommon in a high-density urban
area (like this one) to have a dozen or more AP's within range, all with
similar strength where the client periodically switches among them.
This whole blame game is the real problem. Greed and possessiveness. As
has been said here already, "It's MINE!" is the cry too often heard. If
someone's bandwidth is so freakin' precious that any one or few random
events of someone else using a piece of it is killing the subscriber's
own use, then they've got at least two problems: first they should learn
to prevent unauthorized access (knowledge is the cure for ignorance that
is demanded by technology) and second, they obviously don't have enough
bandwidth to begin with given their use (or misuse) of it.
I make the naive assumption that any AP that is open, is open
intentionally. And if I need a connection, and one is available, you bet
I use it. And anyone who doesn't do the same is the exception. Ask for
hands at the next KPLUG meeting and see who has never once intentionally
connected to an available anonymous open AP, and lets see who shouldn't
be throwing rocks.
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
--
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