Is this fair?

[The Lone Gunman]

What is this "reading" of which you speak?

Its a small tulipty town just outside London. You should have used abig R though, I know how difficult this language is for you guys.

Little lizard in a tree sees a monkey smoking a joint, monkey offers to share. A little later the liyard sazs man I need a drink. The monkey says tha water hole is over there.
Little lizard pops off for a drink and the monkey keeps on tokin.
The lizard gets to the water hole, but as he is drinking he falls in (he stoned after all), anyway as he is thrahing about this crocodile comes up and helps him (apparently its a lizard thing) and asks how he manages to be in the water so he explains about the monkey and the dope and being stoned and falling in. The crocodile asks if the monkey might spare some weed and the lizard says probably and sends him off to the tree where the monkey is sitting.
When the crocodile gets to the bottom of the tree he shouts "hey monkey" and the monkey replies "HOW MUCH water did YOU drink?"

[Mailman]

One of the simplest forms of security is not to broadcast your SID. You could even lock your network down by MAC address too.

Regards

Mailman

[The Lone Gunman]

I've got a Belkin which is currently unsecured I'm not sure how to secure it. However I'm not the only one in my block and sometimes another Belkin pops up. I have found myself using that one sometimes unless I specifically choose my own.

PS Anybody feel like saying how to secure it. Ta in advance.

Go into your setup page (is it http://186.192.1.1 or something like that). Select WPA (I think). Its the third level of security set the password. Then go to all the computers on your network and sign on with the same key. RTFM!!!!! It is in the manual and in their online support stuff.

[Lucifer Box]

Such a defence would hold little water as the person installing the network, be they a home user or a business, has ultimate responsibility for any criminal activity that takes place on that network, whether it be launching a hack attack or downloading illegal pornography

So if some coont leaves something dodgy on your network it's your fault? Nice.

[zathras]

I've got a Belkin which is currently unsecured I'm not sure how to secure it. However I'm not the only one in my block and sometimes another Belkin pops up. I have found myself using that one sometimes unless I specifically choose my own.

PS Anybody feel like saying how to secure it. Ta in advance.

[Mailman]

Same, I have a secured wireless network at home and occassionally see an unsecured network pop up in the evenings.

This bugger got what was coming.

Mailman

[The Lone Gunman]

I have a Wi-Fi network, properly secured, as has a next door neighbour, though regularly on my visible networks list is another unsecured one. I dont know which neighbour it is, though I am sure they dont know what they are doing.

Trick is, the unsecured one isnt permanently on so appears at the top of the available networks list occasionaly. As a user I may not notice which network the PC has picked up even though my own has precedence.

Would I still be liable?

I want to find who it is and tell them how to secure it.

[DimPrawn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm

A recent court case, which saw a West London man fined £500 and sentenced to 12 months' conditional discharge for hijacking a wireless broadband connection, has repercussions for almost every user of wi-fi networks.

It is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK, but with an estimated one million wi-fi users around the country, it is unlikely to be the last.

"There are a lot of implications and this could open the floodgates to many more such cases," said Phil Cracknell, chief technology officer of security firm NetSurity.

Details in this particular case are sketchy, although it is known that Gregory Straszkiewicz had "piggybacked" on a wireless broadband network of a local Ealing resident, using a laptop while sitting in his car.



...................


Gaining unauthorised access to someone else's network is an offence and people have to take responsibility for their actions. Some people might argue that taking a joy-ride in someone else's car is not an offence either," he said.

Gaining unauthorised access to a computer is an offence covered by the Computer Misuse Act. In Straszkiewcz's case, he was prosecuted under the Communications Act and found guilty of dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service.

"I guess, and it is a guess, that they couldn't prove he accessed the actual computer and that is why they used another legal avenue," said Mr Janes.

But whatever route the case took, the outcome proves that borrowing someone else's network is not as harmless as the hobbyist wi-fi user might think.

Lax security

It is not just those people driving around in search of a "free" network who have to worry.

The perception among domestic users is that providing security is difficult and it does depend on the competence of the user

Simon Janes, Ibas
People with criminal intentions have, in the past, attempted to use the openness of their own wireless networks to cover their tracks online.

"There have been incidences where paedophiles deliberately leave their wireless networks open so that, if caught, they can say that is wasn't them that used the network for illegal purposes," said NetSurity's Mr Cracknell.

Such a defence would hold little water as the person installing the network, be they a home user or a business, has ultimate responsibility for any criminal activity that takes place on that network, whether it be launching a hack attack or downloading illegal pornography.

Despite this, businesses and residential users continue to fail to take that responsibility seriously by securing their networks, said Mr Cracknell.

A joint survey by RSA Security and NetSurity, conducted in March of this year, found that more than a third of wireless networks in London and Frankfurt had the basic security features turned off.

Many had failed to turn on the encryption that scrambles the data traffic between users and the access point.

Freebie wi-fi

"The perception among domestic users is that providing security is difficult and it does depend on the competence of the user," said Mr Janes.

Mr Cracknell called for an awareness campaign, similar to the one recently run on TV highlighting the threats of identity theft.

The perception in the past has been that borrowing a bit of bandwidth is cheeky but not really criminal behaviour.

With wi-fi operating at speeds of up to 20 times faster than broadband it is unlikely to slow the system down noticeably unless the borrower is downloading huge files and, unless the owner of the network has intrusion detection software, he or she is unlikely to notice the squatters.

The fact that Straszkiewicz narrowly escaped a harsher sentence, had to pay a £500 fine and had his laptop and wireless card confiscated indicates such squatting might not be worthwhile.

Detective Constable Stephone Rothwell from Ealing CID was involved in the case and said future cases would be treated in the same way.

"This case is the first of its type in the United Kingdom and it sets an example to people who use increased computer technology to try and avoid paying for the internet," he said.

It could be that the days of freebie wi-fi are coming to an end.