Grr. I’m having trouble with my internet connection.
By which I mean, of course, that I’m having trouble stealing wireless from my neighbors—I think the people with the best connection must have moved yesterday, since my computer is no longer registering that source. I know, I know—I should just get my own service, but I’m so broke that even dialing into GWBoyfriend’s system, as I did last night, keeps me with my eye on the clock (which may be a good thing for my dissertation progress!).
But still: grrr.
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blithering moron commented at 7:04 PM~
are your neighbors cool with this arrangement?
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La Lecturess commented at 8:00 PM~
That's a good question, and yes, I do feel rather guilty stealing what someone else is paying for. However, I don't actually know where the signals are coming from--to my almost certain knowledge, no on in my actual building has wireless (it's a converted single-family home, so I know all of the handful of tenants). And since we're in row houses here, each one built immediately against the next one and with backsides only about 20 feet from the backs of the houses on the next street, there are lots of options.
I think it's *possible* that the management of one of the 2 nearby renovated buildings (hence, inhabited by yuppies) offers free wireless. Though that's just speculation. Otherwise, I figure--anyone who's so concerned about their connection could always password-protect.
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commented at 2:50 PM~
Yeah, I wouldn't stress. Any time you're using someone else's wireless you should be aware there is a certain risk, and you're implicitly trusting them not to snoop what you're doing, which may or may not be the case.
However, in terms of permissibility: If you don't want someone using your network, use any kind of basic protection. If you're incapable of figuring this out, then you run the risk of someone stealing it. And in any event, it's not like you're running a huge bandwidth-sucking operation. Plus if they don't want you there, but don't know how to protect their network, they won't ever know you're there anyway.
And finally, as far as I'm concerned, leaving the SSID broadcast on (so anyone can see that it's there) is "broadcasting" or advertising a service...
