is it illegal to sit outside someones house and and run of their Internet through wireless?
917736
what do you think?\n\nis it legal to wander into their yard and take a swim in their pool?\nis it legal to split their cable tv and hook it up to your house?\nis it legal to borrow their car if they leave it unlocked?\n\neven if you did use their internet, the mac address of your computer's wireless network card will be all over their wireless router's logs along with times and dates.\n\nif you don't believe me, there's plenty of news reports about people who've gone to jail for doing it:\nhttp://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22wi+fi%22+stealing+jail&btnG=Google+Search&meta=\nhttp://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22wireless+network%22+law&btnG=Google+Search&meta=\n\nstarlet108 knows nothing about the law regarding probably anything, the question was not about whether it's ethically right or wrong to steal bandwidth - it was whether it's legal. she/he's probably only 12/13 years old themself so he/she can be forgiven for making such an uninformed comment.\n\nas for what mark says, connecting to a computer network without permission is nothing like watching tv through someones window - it's more akin to walking through their unlocked front door, sitting down on the sofa with your feet up and watching tv.\n\nspecifically, in places like california, it falls under section 502 of the penal code which prohibits the unauthorized access to computers, computer systems, and computer data. there are similar laws covering the same thing in pretty much any state in the US, UK, and other large countries.\n\nalthough the UK tends to be behind the US in terms of computer and internet related laws, there is a law which covers this kind of thing and has been used successfully in court; namely 'dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service' which is what it sounds like, using a wireless computer to steal wireless internet services:\nhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm\n\nin starlet108's case, whether the people responsible are arrested and prosecuted or not is purely down to which police officer attends the scene - i wouldn't imagine many of them are aware of the laws regarding service theft and will probably just say 'well put a password on it' to fob the victim off because it's cheaper than investigating it.\n\nincidentally, in 2007 manufacturers of wi-fi devices will have to include warnings about using those devices unsecured - which is just as well, there are 4 routers giving off signals where i live and mine is the only one that's secured, the other 3 are probably being hammered by everyone in the local area.
257495
No, not as long as you have a firewall, anti-virus, and spyware protection..Also, your router has a hard firewall installed, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about..I usually surf the internet, with my wireless connection..
422080
Those are probably control packets from your provider that they use to determine your status. Unless someone else is connected to your cable or modem, they shouldn't be able to steal your bandwidth. A wi-fi network would allow people to access your connection if you haven't set the router to prevent unauthorized access.
865566
That is illegal, but it happens. Frankly, if it's unsecured, your neighbors probably don't mind.\n\nUnless they go to great lengths to find out what you're doing, they probably won't even notice.
458024
It isn't illegal is it?\nIt depends on where you live, what the laws are locally, and how many people all together live in the house.
960042
just hide a wireless surveillance camera(by logic recording).be creative and talk about that you do not want such thing or otherwise you will go to the authorities.
619537
Yes if you have a wireless internet card and are in an area that supports it (such as an internet cafe, office, library, etc.)
774991
Not without administrative rights. Your activity for troubleshooting is limited otherwise.I'm more than sure that laptop is capable of connecting to that router. Have you tried hard wiring yourself to that router. If it connects that way its your wireless. If your bound for wireless use then You can try this, click start, run and type in cmd\nipconfig /release\nipconfig /renew\n\nSee if your nic card is possibly holding a ip address from another network. Does any of your friends have a laptop you can test with. See if theirs will connect to it. I was wondering about the limit on how many ip's that router is set to give out. That could also be a problem. Is there any other computers in your house that are wireless. If so i'd check the settings on the distribution of ip's.Otherwise any of my other suggestions won't work since you have no rights.
157680
Report it to the internet carrier & the police
120875
It's not illegal as far as I know, but it's probably a violation of the terms of service from your isp. The worst that's going to happen is that your isp will cut off your service if they find out about it.
287307
You need a wireless router.
525140
Currently, there are no federal laws that prohibit anyone from using an unsecured wireless access point, so no, it's not illegal. There ARE, however, laws that prevent various types of unlawful computer activity, like breaking into a computer or using a computer to commit crimes (fraud, kiddy porn, etc), so it's not a carte blanche.
888376
if her bf "did something" security-wise, then that means he probably password protected the router so the neighbors can't freeload off her wireless.  You have to find a way to get to the router settings.  You probably need the manual in order to find the right access address to input in IE so that you can get into router settings.  Once you find that out, you can input the same settings into your wireless card and off you go.
128225
In some jurisdictions, using an open WiFi connection without the owners consent is illegal.  It can also open your laptop to intrusion.  So the answer is NO, it is NOT safe to use unsecure WiFi networks
874707
Illegal no....  Not possible...at this time as far as i know yes.  You can put area networks instead of school networks.
165058
Maybe around the house but not out in public.
899465
Yes, you can. The laptop will be totally fine as all the information is stored permanently on the hard drive, which doesn't require power going to it for the information to stay safely on there. If you unplug the router then you *might* need to set your net connection up on it again afterwards, but as long as you're comfortable doing that then it's no real problem.\n\nOh, and I disagree entirely with Derek D's advice. People run their laptops until the battery's completely flat all the time, it's a totally commonplace event and requires nothing to sort except plugging it in again and letting it charge up for a while.