Are wifi jammers illegal in Ireland ?

eamonnq

Was looking to stop a teenager accessing the wifi signal that reaches into the house from a local pub (a fair distance away), and ordered a wifi jammer online.

I received a letter from customs stating that the item was 'seized' under section 207 of the customs consolidation act.

So I am wondering are they actually illegal ?

juice1304

i would doubt it heres two being old here.
http://virtualvillage.ie/Items/c04150-1040?&caSKU=c04150-1040&caTitle=Mini%20Portable%20WIFI%20Signal%20Jammer%20With%20Built-in%20Antenna

http://www.virtualvillage.ie/Items/c04150-653?&caSKU=c04150-653&caTitle=3W%20High%20Power%20Handheld%20Signal%20Jammer%20Cell%20Phone%20GPS%20Wifi%20Black

eamonnq

Yeah, I did see that site but it appears to be a China-based selling site. The .ie domain makes it look Irish, but they seem to have sites with lots of different countries domains (.it .fr etc.)

http://static.virtualvillage.com/www/VV_foot_info/UK/about_us.html

So even if you buy from there it would still come in from China.

seamus

Yep, the law goes all the way back to 1926. It's illegal to use any apparatus designed to interfere with the transmission of a wireless signal.

Your best option is to scan the network involved, find out what channel(s) it's broadcasting on.

Then change your own wireless router to broadcast on the same channels and it may theoretically drown out the pub one.

eamonnq

seamus wrote: »

Yep, the law goes all the way back to 1926. It's illegal to use any apparatus designed to interfere with the transmission of a wireless signal.

Your best option is to scan the network involved, find out what channel(s) it's broadcasting on.

Then change your own wireless router to broadcast on the same channels and it may theoretically drown out the pub one.

Marvellous, guess I should have checked before buying it!

Thanks for the info

deconduo

eamonnq wrote: »

Marvellous, guess I should have checked before buying it!

Thanks for the info

Another alternative; If you know the owner of the pub you could ask them to block the MAC address of the device in question.

listermint

Or you could just discuss with said teenager then ins and outs of the internet and let them make some informed decisions.

Banning someone from something never works, I dont know why in the world you would want to pursue that line ?



And yes WIFI jammers are throughly illegal. rightly so.

Reamer Fanny

Any device that manipulates the 2.4ghz is said to be illegal, why not implement proper security at router level?

GreenWolfe

deconduo wrote: »

Another alternative; If you know the owner of the pub you could ask them to block the MAC address of the device in question.

Not going to work, he probably changed his MAC address (the value reported to software, not the hardware address of course) before he began doing that. The pub owner should be using WPA2 with a non-dictionary password. If it's stuck on WEP, the landlord is a cheapskate.

Are you sure the pubs router has a password set? If it doesn't then that puts a different complexion on this situation.

Lots of radio jammers are very poorly designed and can cause more unintended interference. OP's initial plan sets a very poor example to the teenager too imo.

EDIT: Assuming OP's device would have jammed 2.4 GHz frequencies, then it could also knock out Bluetooth, cordless phones, legitimate WiFi users, baby monitors etc.

GhostInTheRuins

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

The pub owner should be using WPA2 with a non-dictionary password. If it's stuck on WEP, the landlord is a cheapskate.

I'd assume there's no password because it's intended for customer use in the pub.

eamonnq

listermint wrote: »

Or you could just discuss with said teenager then ins and outs of the internet and let them make some informed decisions.

Not 'my' teenager to discuss it with and I would not be in the habit of suggesting parenting methods to anyone either.

listermint wrote: »

Banning someone from something never works, I dont know why in the world you would want to pursue that line ?

They are not BANNED as such, they can access wifi in their own home, but it was more a method of 'restricting access' during certain hours i.e. the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the night.

listermint wrote: »

And yes WIFI jammers are throughly illegal. rightly so.

That was the question I asked and thanks for the answer.


Was not really looking for a debate on parenting or the rights and wrongs of the legislation, just a simple answer to a basic question.:D:D:p

eamonnq

justryan wrote: »

Any device that manipulates the 2.4ghz is said to be illegal, why not implement proper security at router level?

Thanks, but not my router (and not my teenager either!!)

eamonnq

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

Lots of radio jammers are very poorly designed and can cause more unintended interference. OP's initial plan sets a very poor example to the teenager too imo.

EDIT: Assuming OP's device would have jammed 2.4 GHz frequencies, then it could also knock out Bluetooth, cordless phones, legitimate WiFi users, baby monitors etc.

The teenager most likely would not have been aware of the 'example' being set. The plan was to just turn on the jammer at bed time, in the hope of stopping the wifi from the pub working.

The unintended interference might not have gone down too well though anyway.

KTRIC

eamonnq wrote: »

The teenager most likely would not have been aware of the 'example' being set. The plan was to just turn on the jammer at bed time, in the hope of stopping the wifi from the pub working.

The unintended interference might not have gone down too well though anyway.

Even if you did get one of these devices and turn it on do you realise it could interfere with other peoples wireless networks. I'd be pretty annoyed if my neighbour was using one of these.

seamus

KTRIC wrote: »

Even if you did get one of these devices and turn it on do you realise it could interfere with other peoples wireless networks. I'd be pretty annoyed if my neighbour was using one of these.

The thing is that if someone complained and the Gardai investigated, you could be subject to criminal prosecution by Comreg.

The thing with Comreg is that they usually operate on a corporate level, so the fines imposed for fncking about with the wireless spectrum are enormous. While it seems innocuous enough to have a short-range jammer, you may as well be broadcasting a pirate TV station.

eamonnq

I was assuming that that would depend on how powerful they are. If it was only effective in a small area that would have suited as it could have been used without interfering with other items in the same house.

Obviously if they are powerful enough to knock out the wifi in the whole country it might upset a few people alright.

That is probably why they ARE illegal though ?

GreenWolfe

eamonnq wrote: »

Not 'my' teenager to discuss it with and I would not be in the habit of suggesting parenting methods to anyone either.



They are not BANNED as such, they can access wifi in their own home, but it was more a method of 'restricting access' during certain hours i.e. the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the night.




That was the question I asked and thanks for the answer.


Was not really looking for a debate on parenting or the rights and wrongs of the legislation, just a simple answer to a basic question.:D:D:p

So it's not your router, teenager or pub. IMO you'd be forcing a decision. Ask the pub landlord to turn down the transmission power on his router, instead.

listermint

eamonnq wrote: »

Not 'my' teenager to discuss it with and I would not be in the habit of suggesting parenting methods to anyone either.



They are not BANNED as such, they can access wifi in their own home, but it was more a method of 'restricting access' during certain hours i.e. the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the night.




That was the question I asked and thanks for the answer.


Was not really looking for a debate on parenting or the rights and wrongs of the legislation, just a simple answer to a basic question.:D:D:p

Fair enough, but if i know teenagers, nothing that any adult does is going to stop them. If they wish to bypass your protocols or whatever they will find a method especially if the parent (as it sounds in this case) isnt very clued in on IT matters.

So while not commenting on parenting its better to have a more open relationship with them rather than putting in cold war style preventions. Teenagers are teenagers we all circumvented out parents at some stage. But when their is communication it works out better in the end.

ED E

Wifi blocked? Turn on 3G....


And if the kids IT savy they'll likely find a wep signal within range.

eamonnq

Well yes, but if they are in at a certain hour and are in their room with no wifi signal available, it is a bit harder for them to access the web late at night (not impossible of course ) but just not as easy as when there is a good free wifi signal in their bedroom!!

mloc

A blocker is a ridiculous idea, for all kinds of reasons, apart from being illegal it's also disruptive to others in the area.

TBH, this all sounds a bit mad.

There's someone else's teenager in someone else's house and you want to make it harder for them to use someone else's WiFi at certain times of the day (knowing they'll probably find a workaround but you want to make it harder all the same)?

eamonnq

OK, one more time for the hard of thinking:

I was asked by the teenagers parents if there was anything they could get to stop the wifi signal being available in their teenagers bedroom.

The wifi signal is available from a local pub, a fair distance away.

I was thinking that the wifi jammer would be a relatively low-powered item which could be placed in a room next to the teenagers bedroom and that this would prevent the teenager using the wifi from the pub. I did not think that it would be strong enough to interfere with the whole neighbourhoods wifi or even other items in the same house, but by the sounds of things people on here seem to think it would interfere with planes landing at Heathrow!! (even though I did not link to the actual item in question, which is actually a small battery powered device).

The original question was a fairly simple one I thought, are they illegal ? and the answer is yes they are illegal.

So I can now say to the parents 'No, there is nothing'

GreenWolfe

Ask the pub's landlord to turn down the transmit power on his router. That's about it.

eamonnq

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

Ask the pub's landlord to turn down the transmit power on his router. That's about it.

Yep, but there are probably loads of people in the area using the free wifi and they might not be too happy about it.

Might just get the teenagers laptop and wreck the wireless card on it!!! (am joking there just in case anyone thinks I am serious!!)

seamus

eamonnq wrote: »

I did not think that it would be strong enough to interfere with the whole neighbourhoods wifi

It probably wouldn't, but there could also be unintended side effects where the jammer causes a GSM dead zone in the teenager's room, could disable their house alarm (if it's wireless), disrupt their home cordless phone and also cause funny stuff to happen with the jammer when the microwave is turned on. I know you're not going ahead with it, but it's just something to note.
Wireless transmitting devices transmit in a very focussed way, but jammers are typically much more brute force, not a like a Bond movie at all. It's a bit like trying to shut down a single airport runway by covering the entire airport in smoke.

So I can now say to the parents 'No, there is nothing'

You can try what I mentioned, but I can't guarantee that it'll work. Plus, a determined teenager will find ways around it, even if he has to sneak out of his room and unplug the home router when he wants to browse porn on the sly.

You can also configure his laptop so that he can only connect to the home network, but again, teenagers are resourceful and will find a way around it.

GreenWolfe

eamonnq wrote: »

Was looking to stop a teenager accessing the wifi signal that reaches into the house from a local pub (a fair distance away), and ordered a wifi jammer online.

I received a letter from customs stating that the item was 'seized' under section 207 of the customs consolidation act.

So I am wondering are they actually illegal ?

eamonnq wrote: »

OK, one more time for the hard of thinking:

I was asked by the teenagers parents if there was anything they could get to stop the wifi signal being available in their teenagers bedroom.

The wifi signal is available from a local pub, a fair distance away.

I was thinking that the wifi jammer would be a relatively low-powered item which could be placed in a room next to the teenagers bedroom and that this would prevent the teenager using the wifi from the pub. I did not think that it would be strong enough to interfere with the whole neighbourhoods wifi or even other items in the same house, but by the sounds of things people on here seem to think it would interfere with planes landing at Heathrow!! (even though I did not link to the actual item in question, which is actually a small battery powered device).

The original question was a fairly simple one I thought, are they illegal ? and the answer is yes they are illegal.

So I can now say to the parents 'No, there is nothing'

You could have mentioned that in your original post. To me, it sounded like you were doing this on your own and it sounded weird.

eamonnq wrote: »

Yep, but there are probably loads of people in the area using the free wifi and they might not be too happy about it.

Might just get the teenagers laptop and wreck the wireless card on it!!! (am joking there just in case anyone thinks I am serious!!)

If loads of people are using the free wifi, then it's likely that actual pub customers can't get good service within the pub. Does the person running the pub know this? If they're not technically minded enough they may not be aware of this. There are any number of thorny legal questions here too, what if something illegal was carried out over that link? I don't think the pub would want to be stuck in a situation like that.

IMO it's the only measure that the teenager in question wouldn't be able to counteract.

107

listermint wrote: »

So while not commenting on parenting its better to have a more open relationship with them rather than putting in cold war style preventions.

http://englishrussia.com/images/rls_duga/1.jpg

Fuzzy Clam

@ eamonnq. Why not just set a normal wireless router to the same channel as the pub's router thus blocking it?

shangri la

I feel sorry for the kid.

eamonnq

shangri la wrote: »

I feel sorry for the kid.

Yep, me too. I think the 'kid' should be allowed stay up all night on the internet doing as they please.

wexie

eamonnq wrote: »

Might just get the teenagers laptop and wreck the wireless card on it!!!

the parents know that laptops are mobile right? as in....can be removed from the teenager's room at bedtime?

seems to be there's a pretty simple solution to be had here?