Isn't there a subtle difference between burglary and stealing your wireless internet connection?

Yup stealing of your wireless connection is harder to detect and is unlikely to involve violence. Both theft though.

Chris

Yeap thats correct, i have no symphathy for those who leave their doors/windows open and then go out either, but thats 'my personal opinion'.

Agree entirely, if you leave your car unlocked with the key in it and it got knicked its your stupidty thats as much to blame. In addition having no wifi encryption (despite wide spread warning) leaves you not just open to band width stealing but massive fraud. People have to take responsiblity ( I know a swear word in modern times) for their computer security.

In addition I think CSO's are one of the biggest wastes of taxpayers money this govement came up with. If I recall recent figure reported they achieved 1 prosecution for every 4 months work.

Should it have gone to court, NO yet another ridicuclous waste of public money ( it will have cost at least

But it also says in your T&C's with your ISP that you have a secure set up and that you are responsible for everyone who uses your connection.

Before you start saying its not fair etc, of course its not fair. i lost my connection with an isp 7 years ago when some spotty kid decided to use my unsecure wifi connection to send death threats to admins on chat rooms. I couldnt possibly do it as i was at work and had cctv to prove i was there, but the ISP kindly pointed me to the T&C's which you agree to (and dont read) when you sign up with them.

they are both theft aren't they?

Well I know which one wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Sorry, but there is absolutely no comparison between the two.

Well I know which one wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Sorry, but there is absolutely no comparison between the two.

Until the police come round for a word because your broadband connection has been used to perpetrate fraud or run a paedophile ring, etc.........

Chris

Until the police come round for a word because your broadband connection has been used to perpetrate fraud or run a paedophile ring, etc.........

Chris

But that's a different crime entirely. One doesn't necessarily follow the other.

car theft=illegal

burglary=illegal

unauthorized broad band usage=illegal

snatching a hand bag=illegal

so all against the law and all punishable under the judicial system, so is bypassing an eletric of gas meter ok as no one is losing out or tapping into you a street light to get your power? how about wathcing TV with no TV licence, no victims there as its a signal sent out by the government virtually that you have to be honest enough to admit to using. how about car tax and insurance? surely as long as you don't have anaccident no ones worse off, no ones lost out?

Until the police come round for a word because your broadband connection has been used to perpetrate fraud or run a paedophile ring, etc.........

Chris

I'm having this same argument over at n95users.com. Some dude recons the authorities would let you off if you simply said your connection was open, so it must have been someone else guv!

Doubt I'll be sending food parcels.....

I'm having this same argument over at n95users.com. Some dude recons the authorities would let you off if you simply said your connection was open, so it must have been someone else guv!

Doubt I'll be sending food parcels.....

There's been a few stories on theregister.com about paedophiles leaving their WLANs open on purpose in case the police turn up, then using the excuse it weren't me guv. Must have been someone else on my unsecure WLAN.

Apparently everyone using this excuse have still been prosecuted.

When I first got a wireless router after a couple of months a couple of coppers turned up at my door asking if I used the internet :eek: at the time I used to DL loads of MP3s and thought it would be about that.

Apparently someone in my street had been on a site called damagedminds or similar using my BB, they had been threatening to commit suicide the day before and the site admin had informed the police. The police got my address from my IP and came round to see if i'd topped myself :eek: .

I now use WPA and Hidden SSID, my router supports MAC filtering and Client ID which I should really set up.

What is MAC filtering & client ID? and should I have them working? :confused:

Help:)

What is MAC filtering & client ID? and should I have them working? :confused:

Help:)

Every LAN card has a unique MAC address. My router allows you to specify what MAC addresses are allowed to connect to the WLAN. Found under MAC filtering on my Zyxel router.

It is possible to spoof your MAC but the more stumbling blocks you put in front of the average war driver the more likely they are to just hop on to your neighbours unsecured WLAN.

Also the router lets you specify a user and password so when you first try to connect to the network an explorer window pops up and asks you for your login in user and password. I believe it works like this anyway as I have never bothered setting it up.

encryption has nothing to do with it, using/taking somethign that you have no right or permission to do so is theft/tresspass. if you came home to find that someone was in your back garden using your padlding pool and sitting on your garden furniture would politely ask them to leave or is it your fault because you don't have anti-climb paint, barbed wire and a security firm keeping a constant vigil over your garden?

what your saying is that leaving your window/door open in your house then being robbed isn't actually a crime as you didn't lock the door

What I was saying is that I know people who have routers with dual access points in them and infact I used to do similar in a shared house a few years back. The AP gives very limited 'open' wireless that anyone could use and then most of the bandwidth and full access for the house was through the locked down AP.

What I am saying is that people do run open AP's, such as hotels, cafes, bars and many other places. I just think the bloke should have got a slap on the wrist and the owner a lesson in how to use a computer.

Nearly every router will come protected these days, so those you find without it will generally have had it turned off.

I am sorry but I think it is a gross waste of taxpayers money taking this any further than a caution/fine. The police could have got the bloke to pay the other bloke say

What I was saying is that I know people who have routers with dual access points in them and infact I used to do similar in a shared house a few years back. The AP gives very limited 'open' wireless that anyone could use and then most of the bandwidth and full access for the house was through the locked down AP.

What I am saying is that people do run open AP's, such as hotels, cafes, bars and many other places. I just think the bloke should have got a slap on the wrist and the owner a lesson in how to use a computer.

Nearly every router will come protected these days, so those you find without it will generally have had it turned off.

I am sorry but I think it is a gross waste of taxpayers money taking this any further than a caution/fine. The police could have got the bloke to pay the other bloke say

Maybe, but then if they had made the fine say