Be careful "piggybacking" off the neighbors' wireless if they don't know. It may be illegal...Also, if you're the neighbor being mooched off of, secure your connection. Whatever happens on your connection can likely be held against you. So if your neighbor gets into something illegal online, you could be the one prosecuted.

Just so there is no confusion, using a neighbors wireless network without permission is against the law, and if you read the news you will see many convictions have been made.  You are illegally penetrating a private network.  Im surprised MSN wasn't more careful to make that point extremely clear.

I live in the St. Louis area and a man was arrested for parking outside a coffee shop  and piggybacking off the free wifi they provide for their customers.

This is illegal dumb Donna.

Just as important as being illegal, it also opens you up very easily to hackers. Basically, by piggybacking onto someone else's network, you're telling them, "Hey, check out my computer and everything in it, including passwords to all my accounts, our household budget numbers, even our plans for next weekend!" If you're uncomfortable sharing THAT kind of info with your neighbors or the people hanging out at your local coffee shop, don't log onto the wireless, free or otherwise.

Plus, unless your neighbor knows about it and gives you permission, it's basically stealing.

Cheers,

Marjorie

"donnaisstupid (Posted 05.07.08 8:01 PM)"

Donna Freeman didn't even write this article you nitwit.