When I right-click on the network icon in the task bar and click "view available wireless networks" I see 2 networks (Linksys and Belkin 54g) that are apparently 2 of my neighbors. These both say "Unsecured Wireless Network". Is there a way to log on and send them a message telling them to secure their wireless networks? I thought I read somewhere that there was even a way to print out a warning on their printer with instructions on how to secure their networks.
Neighbor's Unsecured Wireless
- Thread starter frink1234
- Start date
- Status
TheMajor
PowerQuest / Opera
- Messages
- 10,176
- Location
- Netherlands
Why would you tell them to secure it? 
U could use it
U could use it Exactly. Part of using the wireless setup is knowing how to secure it. If people insist on going to thier isp and saying yeah, just give me the hardware I will do it myself. They are asking for trouble.
I know of several friends who go roaming around in their cars just begging to find people who do not protect their wireless setup.
The results can be quite frustrating for the end user, who then calls someone like me and says what the heck ... and I say well how did you secure your wireless connection. Usually they respond with, well how do you secure it, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to these things. To which I reply, well why did you not get us to set it up for you in the first place?
But then again, if it weren't for these types of users, I would be fairly bored at work.
And to answer your question somewhat, yes you can do many things if you tap into a non-secured wireless network. One of which is connecting to peripherals on the network. Just be smart about it.
~Fawks
I know of several friends who go roaming around in their cars just begging to find people who do not protect their wireless setup.
The results can be quite frustrating for the end user, who then calls someone like me and says what the heck ... and I say well how did you secure your wireless connection. Usually they respond with, well how do you secure it, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to these things. To which I reply, well why did you not get us to set it up for you in the first place?
But then again, if it weren't for these types of users, I would be fairly bored at work.
And to answer your question somewhat, yes you can do many things if you tap into a non-secured wireless network. One of which is connecting to peripherals on the network. Just be smart about it.
~Fawks
Red Fox just because people don't secure their wireless networks doesn't mean they want people taking advantage of their security hole. Some people who setup wireless networks do not always buy their networking equipment from their ISP. Maybe they do not know that they can ask their ISP for help with the setup or maybe they think it would be cheaper if they did it themselves.
People who have insecure networks do not ask to have their networks compromised. Just like how people who do not understand about viruses or spyware do not ask for their computers to be compromised. I'm pretty sure the United States missile defense program does not effectively work, if it even works at all. the governement could have made smarter choices with that.......but that doesn't mean that someone should take advantage of it and send nukes into USA cities to prove that the missile defense program doesn't work.
People who have insecure networks do not ask to have their networks compromised. Just like how people who do not understand about viruses or spyware do not ask for their computers to be compromised. I'm pretty sure the United States missile defense program does not effectively work, if it even works at all. the governement could have made smarter choices with that.......but that doesn't mean that someone should take advantage of it and send nukes into USA cities to prove that the missile defense program doesn't work.
I understand that completely. The people I am referring to are the ones who come to us (I work for a cable ISP) and say yeah, let me have this wireless device and that one, then proceed to go home and try to install it without our help even after we say we do installs for free ...
We do educate our customers here, I'm not sure about other cable ISP's, but we like to have our customers happy with our service levels.
Some customers get the connections up fine, but do not secure it. I know they aren't asking for it to be compromised, but in a perfect world there wouldn't be idiots driving around in cars looking for unsecured signals either.
~Fawks
We do educate our customers here, I'm not sure about other cable ISP's, but we like to have our customers happy with our service levels.
Some customers get the connections up fine, but do not secure it. I know they aren't asking for it to be compromised, but in a perfect world there wouldn't be idiots driving around in cars looking for unsecured signals either.
~Fawks
GeckoEcho421
Daemon Poster
- Messages
- 589
Most people don't even know that other people could log in to their wireless network.
OIDanTheManIO
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 1,847
There is a way of securing your connection with a WEP key. But you can also make it so that your network connection doesn't show up on someone elses available connections, therefore, they will never know your netword ID let alone your WEP encryption key. You can find instructions on enabling both of these in your router instruction manual.
-Dan The Man
-Dan The Man
OIDanTheManIO
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 1,847
GeckoEcho421 said:
It's sad, yet true
Most people that have computers aren't even aware of the dangers of the internet -Dan The Man
True, they are't aware of a lot of issues to do with the Internet. That's why we hand out a walk-through guide for installing wireless and instructions on how to secure it for every one of our customers who choose to not have us set it up for them.
Information and education is a part of what we try to give our customers here, as with the ever broadening ISP market, it pays to keep your customers on your connection if you want to keep working.
~Fawks
Information and education is a part of what we try to give our customers here, as with the ever broadening ISP market, it pays to keep your customers on your connection if you want to keep working.
~Fawks
- Status
