On the other hand, if you don’t password protect your router and the data in question is not on your computer, it’s a great way for a pedophile to cover his tracks if he has a special off-site “porn” computer.
If your router is not password protected, and they can find none of the documents in your possession, this is the perfect argument.
No, I’m not into pedophilia or porn but I do use a local businesses wi-fi for all my access and have for over a year. In my case it was about saving paying comcast $75 a month. Youtube’s are a bit slow, but it’s a small price to pay. It also means that if I ever DID do something illegal, they would have to do some triangulating, site tracing (e.g. these posts), etc. to find out who and where I am.
This is a bit like having a car that your friends all use and getting a red light ticket in the mail where the face is not clear. You’re off the hook.
On the third hand, if you do password protect, and someone gets past your password, you look real guilty.
Maybe kicking in doors is the wrong approach to all but crimes of imminent menace.
I’ve only got one neighbor who might be close enough to use my wireless and that’s probably stretching the range a bit.
Do you shoplift to save money on groceries and clothes too?
So you’re a thief?
“This is a bit like having a car that your friends all use and getting a red light ticket in the mail where the face is not clear. You’re off the hook.”
No wonder why the muzzies want their women to be able to wear their hijab everyhwere, they can get out of speeding tickets on top of everything else. Damn.
Do you consider your actions to be theft of services? War-driving is simple, but you can be charged and punished with a five-year incarceration for stealing your neighbor’s WiFi. It’s happened.
If your not contributing to the cost of this business Wi-Fi then your stealing.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
It doesn't take but 15 minutes to find the person who's "using" someone elses open WiFi connection. I know, I saw that happen first hand.
True story: A friend of mine and I were chatting on the radio (we're both "hams") one early Sunday morning about a year ago when his doorbell rang and he excused himself to answer it. Within a minute, he was back on the radio telling me the FBI was at his door and he was asking me what he should do.
I asked him if he did anything wrong (knowing he didn't) and advised him to open the door. They had a warrant to search his home, interview and arrest him, and seize his computer. He opened the door and invited them in and asked them why they were there.
He was informed that his IP Address had been tracked down as having sent a threatening email to the White House. he tried explaining to them it wasn't him, but of course they wouldn't hear any of that. Frankly, why should they believe him if they tracked the IP through the ISP (Comcast) who provided the proper logs and documentation to prove the IP address was assigned to him at the time the threatening email was sent using his internet connection.
He showed the FBI where his computer was, which happened to be in the same room as his radio equipment. As my friend keyed up to tell me the feds were there and seizing his computer, I informed him I was on my way to his home and I'd be there in less than 10 minutes.
As I got there, an FBI agent was scanning his computer using a device unlike something I'd seen before and another agent was asking where his router was.
Here's where the story takes an interesting twist. A few weeks prior, I had configured my friends Linksys router by first upgrading the firmware to Tomato and then setting the encryption keys, turned off broadcast SSID and allocated only enough addresses via his wireless connection for his two daughters laptops. I'd also coded in the MAC Addresses of his two daughters laptops as an added security measure so that no other wireless connection could attach to his router. When I finished setting his router, I hung it on his BASEMENT WALL next to where the cable modem was.
From a security perspective, that's about as secure as one can make a Linksys Router. Don't broadcast the SSID, put a complex password on it (Caps, special characters, numbers and letters so it's not easily guessed) and filter the wireless to allow only the devices one actually owns to stop unauthorized devices.
Now back to the story. When I arrived, an FBI agent was going into his ATTIC - to locate his wireless router - and pull whatever logs they could from it to confirm the IP address and MAC address of the device.
It was then I asked my friend "John" why he moved his wireless router from his basement to his attic. His response was that his daughters weren't getting a good signal in their bedrooms on the 2nd floor, so he moved it for them.
In the process, he forgot the password to the device and wanted to make it so his daughters friends could also use the wireless connection with their laptops when visiting. So what did my friend "John" do? He found the instructions on how to do a hard-reset on the wireless router on-line, which set the device back to factory defaults with NO WIRELESS PROTECTION OR ENCRYPTION WHATSOEVER.
For whatever stupid reason, he didn't think this was a 'bad thing' to do, and thought the security I setup for him was "overkill." FBI getting ready to walk out the door with all his computer equipment and ready to arrest him certainly changed his mind, but it appeared too late.
One FBI agent heard the entire conversation and went to whoever was leading the seizure/arrest process on sight and it was at that point they talked to my friend "John" about what had happened and why they were there. Thankfully they became convinced (somewhat..) that he hadn't sent the threatening email to the White House and then proceeded to pull the connection logs off the Linksys router. (I'd installed TOMATO Firmware on the Linksys router and it kept extensive connection logs!) The FBI located a MAC address in the log files that matched the date and time window of the threatening email that was sent to the White House, and began scanning the airwaves outside his house with a hand-held antenna and scanning device.
I don't think it took them 15 minutes to pinpoint the house with the matching MAC address from the routers logfiles. It turned out to be a neighbor 4 doors down from my friend "John." The computer was turned on and it was connected to my friends Wireless Router when they found it.
The owner was taken into custody, and my friend "John" had his wireless router seized for evidence, but he came out of it without being arrested having fully coooperated with the FBI. He has a new Wireless Router that I've again secured and configured for him. I don't think I had to tell him to not hit the hard-reset button on it, I think he's learned his lesson.
When you use the Verizon broadband, there is also an option of using local hotspots so your minutes aren’t used.