Rob Clymo: Columnist - Tech & Gadgets
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The Clymo Brief: The Wi-Fi free-for-all
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An airport, as I know to my cost, has the capacity to siphon all the money right out of your wallet. From sky-high sandwiches to top-dollar suntan lotion, before you reach your flight you’re gonna be fleeced. Getting access to broadband as you pass through the terminal is no exception. Southampton, Belfast and Aberdeen all have decent Wi-Fi access (as I recently discovered), but you’ll have to pay for it.

However, it’s the perfect time to try out Wi-Fi enabled gadgets, like the two Nokias I’ve been using recently, the N96 and E71. I used them a lot for keeping track of emails during a trip away last week - hence my visits to the three airports mentioned.
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Prior to departure though, I took the phones home and fired them up for a bit of a play around. Right off the bat, the two handsets automatically started looking for wireless networks in the area, finding not one but three. Two were password protected, but one allowed me to browse the internet and check my email before I twigged it wasn’t my own broadband supply.

Piggyback ride
Tapping into someone else’s domestic wireless network, or 'piggybacking' as it’s been dubbed, creates debate wherever you bring it up. Technically it’s illegal. Perhaps it's morally questionable too. Interestingly though, many people I talked to during my subsequent travels said they didn’t have a problem with it. I think they’d feel differently if it was happening to them.

What do you think? Is it OK to piggyback on someone's Wi-Fi connection? Let us know on the message boards.
The legislation relating to piggybacking is different depending on where in the world you’re situated. As with most legal matters surrounding the web and email usage, a lot of the laws are still being written. Piggybacking is certainly commonplace, but that’s hardly surprising given that so many of us now use wireless routers to distribute broadband around our homes.

Free-for-all
Cheapskates find it instantly appealing as it means you can surf the web without paying for the privilege. Not a big deal if a person is just logging on to check email I guess, but it suddenly becomes more of a problem when you consider a neighbour or even someone in a car parked outside your house could, theoretically, spend hours enjoying a fast and furious broadband supply at your expense.
If you think someone is tapping into your wireless then check the router software and logs to see if other machines have been connecting, particularly if the speed has been slowing to a crawl. If performance is severely affected, it could be that someone is using your account to transfer all manner of data, either to or from the internet, thereby sapping the lifeblood from your service.

What do you think? Is it OK to piggyback on someone's Wi-Fi connection? Let us know on the message boards.

Prosecutions for hijacking someone else’s broadband are currently rare in the UK and, perhaps because the law is struggling to keep up, most people seem to escape with a stern warning. However, there have been notable cases, like that of Gregory Straszkiewicz who, in 2005, was fined £500 under the 2003 Communications Act for pilfering someone else’s supply via a laptop while sitting in his car.

Illegal activity
It’s one thing having other people using your connection and perhaps even abusing it by downloading large chunks of data like HD movies and music. However, there are also plenty of more unsavoury motives for this activity, such as identity theft or the download of illegal pornography.
This could mean big trouble if you’re the account holder, unwittingly implicating you in an illegal activity that could see the police come knocking at your door. Cyber-criminals can also gain access to the data on your machine if they’re not effectively locked out.

Your responsibility
The responsibility for ensuring your Wi-Fi access is secure remains your job. If you’ve got a wireless connection then be sure to password protect it. The Nokias I’ve been trying out instantly displayed which wireless networks were secure and which weren’t.

Unless you are willing to create your own free-for-all Wi-Fi hotspot the best advice is to double-check your settings. If you haven’t protected your connection with a password then do it now.

What do you think? Is it OK to piggyback on someone's Wi-Fi connection? Let us know on the messageboards.

Home Wi-Fi networks access the web using a router to distribute the signal. Check the manual to find out how yours can be encrypted and don’t forget to change any default passwords, along with coming up with a new one that your neighbours can’t guess. So don’t name it after the cat.
Getting secure
By activating WEP, or Wired Equivalency Privacy, you can effectively scramble your Wi-Fi connection so that only machines authorised to see it can gain access. On top of that, install a firewall (if you haven’t already got one) and make sure it’s correctly configured too. These measures aren’t considered foolproof, but they’ll certainly help combat casual intruders.

You’ll also want to change the default broadcasting signal, the SSID (Service Set Identifier) name. Again, this often has a default setting so it’s crucial this is altered. A router can be configured so this signal isn’t broadcast to all and sundry, usually via the router's configuration screen (this should be detailed in the manual). If you’ve lost yours then look it up on the web!

Addressing the issue of piggybacking is an important subject. Go on, check your settings now. You may be in for a surprise...

Recent columns from Rob Clymo:
Review: Nokia N96
A decade of digital TV
Taking on the spammers

All Rob Clymo's columns for Tech & Gadgets

Rob Clymo is a journalist employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft. The views in this article are those of the author and not of MSN or Microsoft. Microsoft is the publisher and owner of MSN Tech & Gadgets.