Using someone else's broadband ?

robbie_62

Hi Guys

Just a quick question,Is it now against the law for someone else to use your wireless broadband without your permission ?

I have broadband for the last year or so and im happy I have my router configured correctly but every few evenings,there is always 2/3 foreign reg cars in the estate.

You can clearly see the guys have laptops on their lap and are ringing home !

I rang the guards about it a few months ago as one night they were parked right outside my house,They told them to move on but then the garda said that it wasnt against the law anyway ?

Just curious if anyone knows better as I know guys have been prosecuted in the UK for this,

Thanks

Rob

coolhandc

i think it should be if its not at the moment.
its quite dangerous to have someone else use your internet when you dont know who they are.im afraid of it too tbh.ive been meaning to read up on how to protect your wireless router with a password or something so no one else can use it...maybe someone knows how?

robbie_62

Hi Mate,

It is easy enough to do,Who is your broadband provider ?

Rob

Galen

Lock them out permanently by changing your router's wireless security.

kaiser sauze

Galen wrote: »

Lock them out permanently by changing your router's wireless security.

Exactly what I was going to say.

They are only able to piggyback on your wireless LAN because you have not changed the default passwords.

Have you still got the default password on your mobile mailbox? Assuming you have one, I doubt it. Same principle applies here.

Get it changed quick as if they are downloading child porn or something of that nature, you are responsible.

humbert

It is against the law, and if the garda said it wasn't report him for being shockingly ignorant.

WEP wont keep them out, you'll have to use WPA and there are a multitude of unpleasant reasons they might be choosing to use someone else's broadband.

garthv

They succesfully prosecuted somebody in England a while back but the Irish Government still don't realise that the internet exists so matters like this are still a very grey area.

Id suggest switching to WPA encryption and only allowing connections by mac address with your router. Will stop anybody trying to leech ya.

tman

If it's a secured network, and you have proof that they're using it, then I'd ring the cops. (god only knows what kind of dodgy stuff they could be doing with your connection)

If someone is using your unsecured wireless network, then you brought it upon yourself.

zap27

Ive posted in another thread but I think Ill bump this cos it really is important and an issue that I think myself and others have a lot of frustration with.

I use a netopia 3d reach wireless adaptor and a belkin 54g router with NTL. I spent absolutely hours trying to get my BB secured and with no luck whatsoever. went into every setting and after having my connection down for a whole weekend, it eventually came back. The second i changed the SSID in the adaptor's settings the connection went down and would not come back until I re-named it its original name and reinstalled its software umpteen times.

The only way I can access internet through my details above is with an "open" connection. The connection dies instantly the moment i try and change any security settings.

Ok I'm not tech savy particularly but no mug either-I just dont understand how to do this.

People on this forum write stuff like "oh change your WEP this and WPA that" as if its the easiest thing to do. Any time I ever try and set a password the connection dies. If it was that easy surely everyone would be secured and nobody would be pikie-ing broadband! I have a pick of my own belkin 54g and at least 2 other unsecured 54g's every time i log on.

Am I missing something? Dumb perhaps? OK phew even if i get no replies at least its out of the system!

Croc

I am no Lawyer but they may be committing an offence under Section 4 Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001 although it does describe theft as taking "Property" i am not sure if bandwidth could be construed as "Property"

They may also be committing an offence under Section 9 of the same Act "Unlawful use of computer."

The Garda have a power Under Section 7 Criminal Justice Act 2006 to "Seize & Retain Evidence" Coming into their possession which they believe is evidence of or relating to the commission of an arrestable offence. Both of which the above are.

If their computers where seized even for a small while for the purpose of investigation then they may get a message and stop what they are at.


Of more concern to me is if they are visiting web sites that are shall we say "undesirable" then it comes back to you as it will be traced back to your ip address and you might have questions to answer.

If you are quoting this to The Gardai the next time you call them just be careful how you do it as they may not like being told how to do their jobs. I suggest you say something like "I consulted my solicitor and he advised me etc etc as above"

dkane

Turning on WPA is really easy.
Basically all you need to do is to connect into the modem over the web interface.
Usually something like http://192.168.1.254. If that address doesn't work open a command prompt type in ipconfig and you will get the ip address of your default gateway. This will usually be your modem.
Once you have the web interface open locate the security tab. Turn on WPA-PSK and set your pre shared key to something people won't be easily able to guess.
Save and apply your settings.
The modem will reboot.
Once it does on your laptop search for available wireless networks.
When you choose your network you should be prompted for the Pre Shared Key you setup earlier. Enter it and you're good to go.

Detailed instructions for the Netopia modem are available here http://www.netopia.com/support/hardware/SoftwareUserGuideV761-Clsc.pdf

MooseJam

having read this I changed to WPA - PSK with a 63 character key, am I safe now ?

or do I have to change my ssid, thats the name of the network right like eircom3424 5763

MooseJam

ok i changed to access by mac address I assume this is the safest

woolymammoth

MAC filtering will NOT increase your security. It increases the amount of work your router has to do without providing any real additional security as MAC addresses can be spoofed. Use a proper algorithm, like WPA2 with TKIP and PSK, WITH a good passphrase, WITH numbers at the end. There's better algorithms on better routers, but be careful too of Windows as it sometimes has problems using very high security algorithms!

Mint Sauce

technically yes, as its theif of someone else's service

MooseJam

woolymammoth wrote: »

MAC filtering will NOT increase your security. It increases the amount of work your router has to do without providing any real additional security as MAC addresses can be spoofed. Use a proper algorithm, like WPA2 with TKIP and PSK, WITH a good passphrase, WITH numbers at the end. There's better algorithms on better routers, but be careful too of Windows as it sometimes has problems using very high security algorithms!

it won't uh sigh well I don't suppose it will do any harm as I have it and WPA2 with a 63 character password , never heard of TKIP and PSK is that really necessary, if it is I shall investigate further thanks

woolymammoth

MooseJam wrote: »

having read this I changed to WPA - PSK with a 63 character key, am I safe now ?

or do I have to change my ssid, thats the name of the network right like eircom3424 5763

sorry, i just seen this post MooseJam. Is that your SSID? 'cos if it is, you should have a look at this!!

as far as TKIP and PSK are concerned, no, they're not necessary, but neither is a steering wheel lock if you think your car has good enough locks and a loud alarm!

TKIP & PSK are encryption algorithms. They encrypt the data between your computer and the wireless router, making it impossible for anyone to connect to your wireless network.

MooseJam

ah no just made that up, so currently I have WPA2 with a 63 character password so am relatively safe, I'll have to look into TKIP and PSK, though I'd guess my netopia router doesn't support it, thanks for the info

jakeyb

Generally, this is called 'War Driving' which of course is not really known big here in Ireland. Reason is that folks just don't the limitations on how exposed they are with wireless broadband. If you are to drive around say half of Dublin with few applications that searchs for wireless lan, you will notice that there are loads on open networks around. Any deteremined networ guru can within mintues bypass a WEP wireless security, whilst WPA2 is more secure, not that it can't be hacked though.

We all talk about this becuase we know few things about network/computers, but just image the avrage person out there who just want to surf the net or book air ticket with his or her broadband service, a broadband provider comes and installs and goes - user does not even know any thing about Router web acces, talkless of changing default password.

Type 17

For what it's worth, when that "Eircom routers are wide open" story broke in the papers last year, the Irish Indo's story contained the following text: "Using wireless networks without permission is a criminal offence under the Criminal Damage Act 1991 and the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001."

I pasted it into the DHCP message field of my WLAN access point, so that anyone who manages to get into it (through the 63-character WPA2 key ) will get this on their screen when they get an IP address

It's handy for me to see it too, as then I know I'm logged on...

PogMoThoin

My networks secure, but i'm thinking bout openin it & doin this as i've got a home server that handles DHCP.

Would really fcuk with their heads