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Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:31 am
by matthijs
Apparently Bruce Schneier leaves his wireless network open. The security risks are low and he thinks it's kind of social. I agree. It's very convenient if I'm somewhere and can access the internet by some open network. If someone would use a bit of my bandwidth, fine.

So what do you guys do?

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:38 am
by Ollie Saunders
I would encourage everyone to do the same, leave your wireless network open by all means, whilst I privately have my own secured.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:42 am
by Kieran Huggins
I lock it and use my phone number as my WEP key - anyone who knows me can just look it up, but it's closed to complete strangers.

I'm considering offering a limited, segmented access point to guests for the same reasons. Just haven't implemented it yet.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:47 am
by Chalks
If I didn't have a printer on my network, I would leave it open. Since I DO have a printer, I keep it protected. I just don't want some random person printing reams of pr0n on my printer "for the lulz". Otherwise, I'm all for open networks.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:53 am
by Ollie Saunders
I'm considering offering a limited, segmented access point to guests for the same reasons. Just haven't implemented it yet.
Hmm yes I considered that too. Give guests access to the internet but not the machines on your network. How would you set such a thing up? I guess you would have to have 2 physically separate routers both with a connection to the same modem. But you only get one IP with a connection and both router's can't share it hmmm.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:08 am
by VladSun
ole wrote:How would you set such a thing up? I guess you would have to have 2 physically separate routers both with a connection to the same modem. But you only get one IP with a connection and both router's can't share it hmmm.
Connect the WAN port of the second (with "secure network") with one of the LAN ports of the first router (the one that will share internet to strangers :) )

And it will be only one router if you have a WRT54G/GL router :) You will do the security at firewall level.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:21 am
by alex.barylski
I button down the hatches...no piggy backing on me thankyou very much...but I live in the burbs...so if someone used my connection...they'd just be being cheap - which drives me nutts. :P

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:24 am
by Inkyskin
Hockey wrote:I button down the hatches...no piggy backing on me thankyou very much...but I live in the burbs...so if someone used my connection...they'd just be being cheap - which drives me nutts. :P
Ditto - I can't stand people freeloading of my own connection, that I pay good money for. Again, I live in a flat out of town, so it wouldnt really benefit anyone unless they were theiving it!

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:04 pm
by Ollie Saunders
I button down the hatches...no piggy backing on me thankyou very much.
Ditto - I can't stand people freeloading of my own connection, that I pay good money for.
I bet you guys make great hosts.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:27 pm
by Inkyskin
If someone who came round to my place and needed to use the wifi - i'd let them without question. It's people who live around me that I don't want freeloading.

Plus my neighbours are scummy types - the kind that ask for 10p "For the phone" every time they see you, if you know what I mean.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:48 pm
by Zoxive
I live in the middle of no where, and mine is open.

The only way i know if i someone is on my network if there is a suspicious vehicle sitting outside. Which never happens, i drove threw my little city a few months ago with my laptop on, and found around 100 wireless networks, and 70 of them were open.

(Also note, I have some older pcs on it also, which do not support/do not like wep/wpa security they dropped connection often)

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:20 pm
by Ollie Saunders
Plus my neighbours are scummy types - the kind that ask for 10p "For the phone" every time they see you, if you know what I mean.
Ahh well I can see you point. You should move.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:12 pm
by Jonah Bron
Zoxive wrote:I live in the middle of no where, and mine is open.

The only way i know if i someone is on my network if there is a suspicious vehicle sitting outside. Which never happens, i drove threw my little city a few months ago with my laptop on, and found around 100 wireless networks, and 70 of them were open.

(Also note, I have some older pcs on it also, which do not support/do not like wep/wpa security they dropped connection often)
Same here, (see location to the left, and then look up on mapquest)
All neighbors are at least a football field away, and ones that are closer than that, wouldn't know how. :wink:

Open.


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Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:34 pm
by matthijs
Indeed it will depend on who your neighbors are. Mine are fine, so I'll leave mine open. Everybody has it's own network anyway, so it doesn't really matter here.

Re: Do you leave your wifi open?

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:27 pm
by Chris Corbyn
In England I used to. Over here I can't afford to leave it open since ISP's on Oz don't do unlimited bandwidth and you get a fairly minimal 4-6GB per month. If my neighbours constantly share my net access I'd soon run up my quota and be shaped down to 64Kb/s :(