Do you 'jack other people's WiFi using your smartphone?

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Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
Posts
34,564
Location
Warwickshire
Just wondering who are the morally strong, righteous members and who are the freeloading chancers :D.

Do you, when walking around cities or driving down a street, ever check for unprotected networks and take advantage?

Have you ever gone beyond just using the internet and downright violated their network? :p
 
Nope, that's what 3G is for!!

I did sign up for FON before BT took over / partnered / bought or whatever they did and ran the naff little router for ages to get free access to other FON APs but with them being few and far between I sold the router and closed my account.
 
I've never actively searched out an unprotected network but I have connected briefly when I've stumbled across one.

But be aware that people have been arrested and in some cases jailed for this kind of caper!
 
In before the lock!

You do realise that such japes are indeed against the law over here, and therefore not something we OcUK'ers partake in!
 
Nope - very rare I can't find a decent 3g signal if I need it, GPRS is fine for the rest of the time. I have 1gig with BT OpenZone and other wifi perks with my phone too so that covers the other eventualities.

Beware of unsecured wifi networks tho, I've heard incidental stories of people setting them up near stations and other busy places to try and capture useable info such as financial details, sometimes dressing them up as BT wifi SSIDs.
 
Did try this the other week when sitting near library some unprotected networks showed up but signals were all low so wouldn't connect, was surprised how many people don't encrypt the routers they own.

Id personally just use 3G when out and about though as its pretty fast as is.
 
Theres an unsecured wireless printer server near me, my friends have "abused" it before (to unknown outcome) and its still unsecured.
 
there are apps for plotting open wifi on android you just turn it on and drive around
you can even sync with google maps

i must have picked up 150 open networks on my old 3mi drive to work
 
If I'm out and about and an open network pops up, I tend to use it unless I'm still on the move or I'm only going to using the net for <1min. On my phone, if I'm on the net using 2G/3G and I wonder into range of a router, it will ask me if I want to connect to it. It's not like I go searching for them.
 
There are places which offer free unsecured networks in public places so theres no harm in searching for them if they're there. As mentioned above though if you do what some people have done and parked up outside Joe Bloggs house and sit surfing at their expense then yeah you'll get done for it if you're not careful.

When I'm across in the US next month no doubt I will take a look to see if there are any free wifi areas that I can hook onto to check emails and stuff. If all else fails then when I'm in my hotel I can spend a few dollars and get things checked out there instead. :)
 
I do this on occasion but to be fair it's like Eircom (the main broadband provider in Ireland) want me to do it. I've an app (available straight from the Android market) that will generate the default passkey for a router based on the default SSID and since most people leave their routers on the default setting it's ridiculously easy to log on to use their broadband.
 
Two letters: 3G. However, when I had WeFi on my phone it used to pick up networks all over the place that weren't secured and connect without asking.
 
I saw a 'htc network' hotspot the other day, the default password worked too :p Didn't bother using it but I hope the dude has unlimited data.
 
I had my iPhone set to automatically connect, so it did, as I was walking down the street. Pulled it out my pocket to find the wi-fi logo on the screen. :)

Don't do it deliberately though. While you'd be rather unlucky, it's not unheard of for wi-fi points to be deliberately left open with a packet sniffer - or worse - lurking behind.
 
My Hero wont work on 3g so yeah I do if its an open network. When I get a phone that will actually work on a 3G network then no I wont do it.
 
Their are quite a few people in the area with un-secure networks - all have a netgear/BT home hubs.

Going to sound bad here but i have looked inside one of the networks and even got into their router lucky enough the username was set to a phone number so just rang it and told em that they were very unsecure and that people can use their broadband and poped over and set passwords :) they were more than happy.

But if its free WiFi area then yeah i use em other than that 3G :D
 
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