Confessions of a Wi-Fi Thief


	Confessions of a Wi-Fi Thief

boozich

6-19-2008 4:39 PM

249 views

boozich says:

Some people thought of creative names for their networks: ParisBrooklyn, MessageInaBottle. Some were boring: linksys, NETGEAR, default. I was always happy to see the boring ones, because the people who don't bother thinking of clever names for their home networks are the same people who don't bother to password-protect them
(A website called ThinkGeek.com sells a T shirt with a battery-powered wi-fi detector that displays the ambient signal strength wherever you happen to be standing. It's supercool, though if I'm too cheap to pay for broadband, I'm definitely too cheap to spend $30 on a T shirt.)

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/bc6c8dc8-c9da-4dd5-bd8d-b8003a08d543/4195563A-5273-4F23-88CD-58F9FE0A51FB/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html" href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.time.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.time.com/img/A7254E92-8F1E-481E-9D6E-5A0448474515" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html">When I moved into my apartment three years ago, the first thing I did after I 
tipped the movers was sit down on a box, crack open my laptop and sniff the air 
for wi-fi signals. And I found them: my apartment was chock-full of delicious, 
invisible data, ripe for the plucking</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html">For the next three years, I didn't pay for Internet access. Instead, I got 
online via the unsecured wireless networks of my neighbors</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html">my browsing slowed down my neighbors' connections from time to time, but I tried 
to keep from transmitting any big files till late at night. And leaving your 
network open can put your personal data at risk--but I didn't want their data; I 
wanted their bandwidth! If it was so precious to them, they should have put a 
password on it!</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813969,00.html">wi-fi transcends urban alienation. You can draw your blinds and grunt at me on 
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