Piggyback me wifi

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Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:42 pm

A new neighbor has moved into the building. He posted notices on all our doors saying that he would pay $10.00 a month if he could piggyback on my isp's wifi. He will furnish all the equipment. Not that I am going to do this but what are the pros and cons of this?

I have been a scambaiter too long all I can think of is his using it for illegal purpose. Any opinions?

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:47 pm

If it were my neighbor, I would tell him to get his own and if possible, secure my network to prevent unauthorized access. If he can afford to pay $10 to each neighbor, he can afford to get his own wifi.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Quote:

I have been a scambaiter too long all I can think of is his using it for illegal purpose

That was my thought, also. As SB suggested, you may want to look into securing your wireless connection; if anything, make it so that you have to log in?

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:52 pm

Hey, can I borrow your internet to pirate a bunch of software, music, the anarchist's cook book, and various educational videos?

... no not a good idea. Those educational videos might just be naughty illegal ones that will land men in suits at your door if you know what I mean.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:25 am

I have let long-time neighbors who are also trusted family friends "borrow" access to my wifi when their own internet is down. But I would never, ever let a person I had only known for a very short time do it - especially with such unorthodox tactics for getting access. Besides the obvious - downloading pirated stuff - what would happen if he used it for kiddie porn or something equally uhm... sick ... for lack of better word? You would be the one it traced to, and he could be long gone by the time it was sorted out (and your life suitably destroyed because of him). You are right not to trust someone you don't know personally and well.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:46 am

Standard rule of thumb for wifi sharing. If it's an open access point then the owner is saying share. If it's locked, WEP or WPA then the Access Point has a large Stay Away sign on it.

Here is my take on this. I have set up a lot of AP's as part of my work. All of the hotels in town here that I work on have open AP's in them. Most of the houses that I set up have open Ap's in them as well. I have only been asked to provide encryption for one client over the last few years. The client was adamant about not sharing as opposed to security.

Security wise both WEP and WPA are kinda useless. Any hacker good enough to exploit an open network will be able to bypass both types of encryption in time. Google cracking WEP and/or cracking WPA. If you are concerned about security, use a wire. Failing that turn off SSID broadcasting, enable MAC address filtering and for the fun of it WPA also.

Concern about the neighbor downloading nasty stuff is another issue. Hopefully most law enforcement agencies know enough about Computer Forensics that it shouldn't be an issue. Eventually all downloads can be tracked to a specific machine, not Just a specific MAC address.

Ultimately it all boils down to your personal good neighbor policy. I always run an open AP and have no qualms about logging into an open AP when I roam. At one location I was able to find the owner of an open AP and asked her permission to use the service. After being surprised that I could actually do that, she said sure.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:16 am

I secure mine, but open wifi is everywhere now..

Every coffee shop, mall, and petrol station has wifi.. Cool

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:23 am

If he can afford to pay his neighbors to use theirs, why can't he get his own? Something just doesn't sound kosher. I could very well piggyback off of the neighbor beside me, and the neighbor in the house behind mine, and pay them for access, but why would I want to do that? Unless I was a) too darn lazy to get it hooked up (but he will provide all the equipment?) or b) I am not wanting anything to to be traced directly to me, I can get my own. It just doesn't make sense.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:31 am

I can throw in my comments also.

You need to know how to isolate your router from your local net and other computers using the AP. Windoz (I assume that is what you are using) is rife with security holes about local access. Windoz just loves to allow any other windoz computer to access any shared directory. As alluded to above you should use the best encryption you can. You should run some kind of protection/firewall/tripwire kind of program on your other computers. Set the logging feature in your router to monitor what he does and change every default setting of the router. And yes, anything your renter does shows up as your account and you are responsible for he does with your account.

Setting the AP for just this one guy is not a problem. You can filter the MAC address, filter the access addresses (I recommend using static IPs only), set time limits, etc.

Quote:

Hopefully most law enforcement agencies know enough about Computer Forensics

This doesn't buy much as you will have to prove it wasn't you. Time and costs in court. Reference RIAA court battles.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:28 am

I am not sure about costs in other countries. Here in OZ to set up a connection other than dial up is on a contract approx $200, relocating said service will be $100 every time you move.

If you only plan to stay for six months then it would make sense to find a neighbour that is willing to share and offset their costs.

I would still think security as all the above posts have said.

As an extension to this thread.
I live in a area where there is "no nil nothing" wireless internet access. I have DSL people living 100m down the road cannot get access to DSL.
I am considering putting up a access point to enable those within a 500m-1klm range (worst case is 750m).
So I would be happy to accept that $10 $15 or $20 dollars a month from approximately 50-100 people to set the infrastructure up.
any advice would be help full.
I was planning on mac address filtering. I don't want to be running full ISP service. (then again if it paid off)
I'm happy to provide a service as long as it's simple.

The local Telco is telling these people to use the wireless service that costs hundreds a month and does not get dial up speeds.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:27 pm

Stoker Thompson wrote:

(..) Failing that turn off SSID broadcasting, enable MAC address filtering and for the fun of it WPA also.
(..)

MAC address filtering is one of the easier things to bypass. WPA and WPA2 isn't that easy.

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:01 pm

hacker level intrusions aside, would there be possibilities for identity theft and general robbing of your own computer?

I've always been a bit suspicious of wireless, my house has hardwired 10/100 ethernet. it's a damn sight more reliable too.

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:51 pm

^^^ I am the same way. I installed Cat 5 cable years ago and have the radio on the router turned off. I know WPA2 is supposed to be secure but I figure why bother.

I had a guy from across the street offer me some bucks to leach some bandwidth a few years back. He was also paying for his first wife and two houses so money was tight for him. I know he is technologically clueless but that was back in the days of DSL and I did not have bandwidth to spare. I just told him no. Even with 10 Mps I would still say no.