Wireless broadband

[Gary]

More often than not, Gary, they simply don't know any better and we are headed back to our call for people to have to pass a basic competence test before being allowed online.

This idea should really be pushed Rik, some kind of education has to be enforced before too long, or its just going to become such a mess

[Rik]

I agree. Persuading those who could implement it seems harder.

[Gary]

I agree. Persuading those who could implement it seems harder.

To be honest its like asking for a crossing on a busy road, it costs money, so therefore until some poor soul is killed they never take notice. Also there is no financial gain visible to the government, and maybe they don't want you knowing to much about how to be secure anyway Rik

[Rik]

True enough, Gary. Cynical lot, aren't we.

[Gary]

True enough, Gary. Cynical lot, aren't we.

[Noreen]

To be honest its like asking for a crossing on a busy road, it costs money, so therefore until some poor soul is killed they never take notice.

I remember talking about that sort of thing to a local government official once. I was amazed when she said that there is an official financial amount stated for a human life and until the total "cost" of deaths caused by something outweighs the the cost of actually doing whatever is required to rectify the situation it won't get done, even though it's as obvious to them as to everyone else that it should be done. This was years ago so I don't know if it still applies.

[Rik]

Almost certainly.

[Noreen]

My conversation about this had started when I said that I was puzzled why, when the solution to a problem appeared to be very obvious to the layman, it didn't seem to be equally obvious to the authorities. Then she told me that of course it was, then she told me about this ratio.

[Rik]

I think the laws in this country still have a tendency to protect property above people, sadly.

[Endgame]

I have only just found out that people were hooking upto my connection. I did have it secured but then my laptop was sent away to get repaired and i must of rebooted the router when it came back and left it unsecured. When i found out other people were using it i didn't think "how dare they, stealing my connection and bandwidth!" i thought "Stupid me, its my own fault for leaving it unsecured!"

Now if they had made me go over my bandwidth allocation that could've been a different story 

[Endgame]

Well after i wrote that last sentence i thought "Actually i'd better check!"

Just checked now and i have been getting hammered! I'm going to have to watch my usage to make sure i don't go over now, i've used 24GB on a 30 limit when i've hardly used it!

Bloody liberty!

[Rik]

Do you get any clues in the router as to who's been using the bandwidth?

[Endgame]

Do you get any clues in the router as to who's been using the bandwidth?

Yes, somebody who calls their computer "Betty"

I can also see their physical address what ever that is 

[Rik]

So, now you have to go around shouting 'Betty' at the top of your voice and see if anyone answers.

The physical address is the MAC, a six-digit pair hex number, eg 00-0E-A6-F1-D8-95.
       

[madasahatter]

So, now you have to go around shouting 'Betty' at the top of your voice and see if anyone answers.
       

And those lovely men in white coats will come and give you a lift 

[Malc]

Yes, somebody who calls their computer "Betty"

Queen Elizabeth's been at your broadband 

[Endgame]

So, now you have to go around shouting 'Betty' at the top of your voice and see if anyone answers.
       

All said in my best Frank Spencer impression of course 

[Rik]

Of course.

[dlorde]

Pleading ignorance just isn't an excuse (bleedin' ignorance isn't either). As my dad (a barrister) used to say "Never confuse the Law with Justice". Plus I'd be surprised if a free wifi connection associated with a commercial premises was not clearly indicated as such.

As I understand it, a physical address MAC is just a unique hardware key and isn't associated with any user data. But would it be possible to identify the freeloader via their IP address or somesuch? Also, I guess in principle, you could capture all the information that user sent over your connection...

[Rik]

The IP address would be a LAN address on the piggy-backed network, though. Certainly, analysing the traffic could reveal the perpetrator.

[somanyholes]

if a user had not spoofed their mac address, there is a chance a company could track them down, however the network card/pc would need to have been paid for in an identifiable way. Beyond that as rik says you would have to look at the data.

and don't forget cctv

[Rik]

And, if all else fails, you could just go around breaking down doors until you find them.

[somanyholes]

maybe of interest, stick in a mac address you want more info on and it will tell you the maker of the network card.

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml

[Rik]

Nice find. 

[Dopamine]

Interesting thread. I knew that using unsecured wireless networks was a problem, but hadn't realised quite how widespread it seems to be.

This is a pretty small and unscientific survey, but its results shocked me:

I live in a nice, fairly affluent area, with good schools, plenty of work and no real problem with youth misbehaviour, but there are areas of high density flats and houses that make using unsecured networks pretty easy. I have three late teenage children and speak regularly with many of their friends too. Discussing wireless network "theft" with them over the last few weeks, I've been astonished to find that nearly all know about it, and about 25% admit openly to regularly using unsecured networks that are not their own. Their reasons, and in some cases justifications, for so doing were varied:

"Dad will only pay for a capped service, so I use the neighbour's network for big downloads"
"Just moved out of home and am renting a flat. Can't afford to pay for broadband"
"This is 2008. Only idiots pay for bandwidth these days" !!!!! Not sure that I agree entirely with this one, but it's his opinion.

The general consensus was that society is polarising: those with technical knowledge v those without, and those without will be the ones who pay. These young adults are, with almost no exceptions, well educated, well behaved, from happy homes, willing to work to support themselves, generally law abiding citizens of the future, yet they fail to see bandwidth theft as "theft".

I wonder what it is that has made them think this way?