One of my neighbours has an unsecured router...

yashiro said:
Leave it. It might come in handy if you lose your connection.
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. . . or decide to change your ISP.

I genuinely can't believe that ANY WiFi networks are left unsecured these days, it is such a basic setup detail.

Having said that, I recently set up a WiFi network for a neighbour and he soon complained that the security was too tight (WPA2, hidden SSID, restricted to specific MAC addresses) and asked me to remove all of it :p
 
Well you don't really need to use WPA2 or MAC filtering due to WPA alone being very secure - it's not like many crackers out there have a cluster farm of PS3s or nVidia GFX cards to crack the encryption!
 
MAC filtering I could see, but the difference between using WPA2 and WPA is nothing, unless you have ancient hardware that won't do WPA2...
 
That's what I was hinting at, not all devices support WPA2 - my sister's laptop for example doesn't get a stable connection on WPA2 but WPA is fine.
 
If you only change or access the router the computer misuse act could not easily be applied unless you stretch a point and consider it computer in it own right.

The Act identifies three specific offences:
  1. Unauthorised access to computer material (that is, a program or data).
  2. Unauthorised access to a computer system with intent to commit or facilitate the commission of a serious crime.
  3. Unauthorised modification of computer material.
under 1 your accessing a router not a computer (discuss)
under 2 your increasing secuirty and intent would have to be established
under 3 your accessing a router not a computer and change nothing on the computer itself
 
IMO a router IS a computer. Its just not a general purpose computer like a PC, its a computer designed for a specific set of tasks. To add security to the router would mean to access the firmware on the router and to adjust its settings. This means you break 1. and 3.
 
Hmm never thought of it that way really - well haven't change anything yet still, for all intents and purposes as far as I'm concerned it could have been a free wifi hotspot given there was no specific SSID name set and it was unsecured so I connected to see what it was!
 
stockhausen said:
. . . or decide to change your ISP.

I genuinely can't believe that ANY WiFi networks are left unsecured these days, it is such a basic setup detail.

Having said that, I recently set up a WiFi network for a neighbour and he soon complained that the security was too tight (WPA2, hidden SSID, restricted to specific MAC addresses) and asked me to remove all of it :p
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Since getting my new phone with wifi (sony xperia) I've been doing a spot of wireless network sniffing on the way to work... and theres ~15 out of the ~20 networks I can pickup that are unsecured... this includes 2x BT OpenZone hotspots, free access at a hotel/pub, free access at the train station, quite a few residential networks judging by the SSID being the default device ID string and a couple of businesses with what appears to be badly setup devices.
 
I think the trouble is people aren't very tech savvy or it's not really explained to them properly.

At my old house there was a unsecured router opposite my house with the house number and road as the ssid name.
 
Log in, see which mac addresses are hers and add them to a mac allow list.
Although this could be confusing if she gets a new computer and can't get on!

Personally I'd just leave it, use it as a backup if yours goes down.
 
Log into the router, see if you can gain access to her network and send rude pictures of yourself to her monitor screen.

Seriously, it would be better leaving it be.
 
Ok, screw the Computer Misuse Act, how about the Communications Act 2003:

"person who (a) dishonestly obtains an electronic communications service, and (b) does so with intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service, is guilty of an offence".
 
intercept the postman and ask him if there's a carrie living nearby and maybe get him knock on the door and tell her. (if he doesn't volunteer her address that is)
 
mrk said:
Well you don't really need to use WPA2 or MAC filtering due to WPA alone being very secure - it's not like many crackers out there have a cluster farm of PS3s or nVidia GFX cards to crack the encryption!
Click to expand...

Just ensure that you change the default SSID if you absolutely must use WPA. WPA can be cracked very quickly by using a rainbow table that is built using the top 1000 most common/default SSID's. We are into extremes here of course but better to be safe than sorry. Your neighbour wont know what a Rainbow table is but a wardriver would.
 
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