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unsecured wireless networks


texas pete

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It can be traced, but if someone isn't clued up enough to secure their network they probably wouldn't even notice you're using it. It's an offence under the Computer Misuse Act for which the maximum penalty is a £1,000 fine and up to 5 years in prison. If you got caught, you'd probably end up just getting fined though.

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I heard of h4(k3rz setting up an open wifi network to lure people in and then pick through their computer and stuff... Who knows if that really happens tho... Unless u live next door to steve.

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It's not terribly difficult to tell if you have an unauthorised user on your wireless network, IF you monitor such things. I don't know many people -even those of a disposition to be rather anal about their home network, who actively monitor who is on their network.

 

At best, as the 'administrator' of a home network who had noticed such an intrusion, you would be in posession of their MAC address (easily spoofed) and in a decent position to capture data packets using a packet sniffer like Wireshark. This isn't terribly useful information unless you know what you are looking for, besides which pretty much all 'interesting' traffic goes over HTTPS anyway (you have enabled https on gmail, haven't you? ;) )

 

On the whole, i wouldn't be too worried about it. I've always seen unsecured networks as an open invitation to browse, within courtious limits. I've been doing it for four or five years now; sadly wheras two years ago I was able to find unsecure AP's on more or less every residential street, these days it is quite rare.

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