people with unsecured internet networks?

I think the point that the OP is trying to make is that it is stupid that people don't secure their wireless network.

As for who is to blame if something happens (i.e illegal downloading over a unsecured wireless network) that is a different story for another time.

Hi I'm flibbage0 and welcome to derp de derp derp:p
 
It was a life saver when we moved house to find someone with an open WLAN, BT screwed us around for about 3 weeks trying to get out own line connected. Now I know i have a couple of available back up networks if anything goes wrong. So thank you to everyone who uses WEP or MAC Filtering for security, it's really useful sometimes! ;)
 
Gilly said:
That is deserving of rape is it?



Isn't it the fault of the thief?
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No one deserves to get raped, burgled or mugged. However there are some unsavoury characters about and if you make yourself an easy/attractive target the victim is more likely to be you.
 
Wicksta said:
It was a life saver when we moved house to find someone with an open WLAN, BT screwed us around for about 3 weeks trying to get out own line connected. Now I know i have a couple of available back up networks if anything goes wrong. So thank you to everyone who uses WEP or MAC Filtering for security, it's really useful sometimes! ;)
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Using an unsecured network is fine, but breaking in to networks (regardless of the **** poor WEP encryption) is outright wrong :p
 
Everyone around me has Sky and they are secured out of the box using WPA2, stupid sky protecting people from themselves!
 
Gilly said:
Why? :confused:

Isn't that akin to saying to a girl if she wears a short skirt on a night out she deserves to be raped?
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I'd say its more akin to not locking your front door, whilst adding SSID broadcast is akin to putting signs up letting everyone know that you haven't.
 
Only a few down my street that I have seen available. All have passwords on which is surprising. A fair few people down my street are 35+ with kids or retired.

My wireless networks SSID is hidden, WPA2 with a good password. Used to have MAC filtering turned on but people who visit my house often want to connect with PDA, Laptop, etc and I can't be buggered with adding their MAC address to my router when they do.
 
Gilly said:
It was the point someone made of it being deserved I was picking up on.
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It's not akin to leaving your car unlocked,
It's akin to leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and the engine ticking over.

Even in the most retiring opportunists would jump all over that.
 
Whilst in all of these analogies the victim doesn't deserve the outcome, neither can they be surprised when it does happen.
 
beachBOYken said:
do you have to broadcast as well to pick the signal up to say a laptop?
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When no SSID is broadcast Windows or whatever WiFi tool you use won't pick up the signal in the list of available networks.

You can still connect to it manually, you just need to enter the SSID and other details, and it will work. People think if they aren't broadcasting the SSID, no one can connect as they wont know the name. The problem is, just about every piece of WiFi sniffing software is able to find any WiFi signal whether or not it broadcasts the SSID.
 
Filtering by MAC address alone is not a smart idea. It might result in a faster network for the media streaming types but it doesn't protect your data. If someone wants to get on your network all they have to do is snoop for you MAC and then spoof it!
 
n1blo said:
It's not akin to leaving your car unlocked,
It's akin to leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and the engine ticking over.

Even in the most retiring opportunists would jump all over that.
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That is true for someone to use the network itself, but not true for them to harvest credit card information and defraud me...
 
I was quite surprised to find that my wife's Kindle shows hidden WiFi networks in it's list. I must admit I did click connect to see is any were 'open' but they all asked for a password.
 
SiriusB said:
The problem is, just about every piece of WiFi sniffing software is able to find any WiFi signal whether or not it broadcasts the SSID.
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Also, as mentioned in the article I posted, if you have your SSID hidden and have your machine set to try and connect to it even when it's not broadcasting the SSID, your machine will actually send out your SSID to see if it responds.

All it takes is some kit that automatically answers these requests, fradulently, saying 'yeah I'm here, connect away' and they've got you connecting through their network :)
 
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