Wireless Connections...Secure?

Question

Say, I'm running Vista...and I'm connecting/stealing to a public /neighbor's(not sure who it is) WLAN...how secure is this?
What can I do to make this(if possible) more secure.
Am I a criminal ?Should I turn myself in? :)

Answer 1

Well you have to think of it this way, if you are connected to his wireless isn't he connected to your machine too?
Secure not at all.
Can you make it secure.. not from your end only from the router side and if you don't own it you cant secure it.

Is it theft, well if you read some Fed. Regs concerning telecommunications it could be considered as such, several states also have laws concerning it, and yes even theft of service is theft.
If you want to see just do a search for
Wifi Theft here is one guy who found out the hard way it was
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/man-charged-with-theft-of-services-for-using-free-wifi-at-coffee-shop-in-for-a-brewed-awakening
Now is it? I suspect the answer is the lawyers fees are a whole lot more than legitimate connections.

Now look at the other end, what if the OPEN wifi you are using is someone wanting to steal identies? Can they see your packets? Yep sure can. In fact anyone in the middle can see your packets unless they are encrypted so someone outside can easily read your signal. So be sure while you are doing this that you buy stuff with your Credit card and visit your bank!

Just dont do it the risks are too high and the payoff way too low. Use networks that invite you to use them and use encrypted ones or radius validated ones etc.

Answer 2

Hi. I'll give you my opinion. First, the user should of secured their network. However if you have to ask the question "Am I a criminal" -- then I'd just stop doing it.

My concern is not so much security (if I was the person you were connecting to) -- my concern would be loss of performance. I don't want someone downloading gig's of MP3's causing my computer to run slow.

Also connecting to any network on the same "subnet" (group of ip's) opens you up to the possibility of someone "sniffing" your usernames and passwords. Standard FTP and E-mail authentication is easily picked up unless you use some sort of SSL to encrypt it.

To make your system "more secure"? Stop connecting to another guys network! And then create your own and follow the proper security measures to avoid the same.

This is the 10,000 foot view. If you are a technical guy -- don't start splitting hairs to my answer. I realize I could of written 100 pages outlining every risk and detail here.

Shane Merem
Website Forge
"The last web site you will ever buy!"
www.websiteforge.com

Answer 3

The owner of the wireless router that you're connected to can see everything. If you connect thru that router to a secure site, you can encrypt everything going to that site.

You're not a criminal, the router owner is letting you connect. You cannot count on him to continue doing that - he can cut you off at any time.

Answer 4

even the best security avaliable for wireless,... and even the highest encryption method simply will not keep people who wish to come in, out....

the problem is that wireless security is based on a public twoway encryption key... and simply can be cracked with the help of software within minutes (depending on the strength of the encryption.)...

stealing is bad...