Open WiFi Morals

[MrCoffee]

Personally I agree with Tigershark on the use dont abuse. I have found a couple of hotspots locally that arent protected... well not REALLY protected (UName:Guest, PW:Guest or no log in at all) that I hit now and again. One of them is a local bank, but it only gives net access, no internet network stuff, so I am not really worried about it. (And I personally bank elsewhere.)

But I see no harm in surfing in my truck, while my wife is shopping.

I wouldnt try and break into a system, nor any secured network connection attached to it. But I seriously doubt that my surfing for an hour or so, around once every few weeks is causing anyone any trouble.

Funny thou, now that I think about it.... if I had a Cat5 jack on my front porch or mailbox, I wouldnt want people parked there plugging into it and surfing from my house.... hmmmm. It is an interesting question...

[jinxy]

This is quite an interesting topic and is not limited to just pc use. Satalite television and radio transmition come into the subject also. Due to the limits or lack of control of signal footprints. Ie, people who are not meant to recieve a particular transmition in one area, often maybe able to recieve these broadcasts.

The same applies to wifi networks as it is very difficult to control the footprint of your network. It is not impossible, just difficult and costly. So the only real method of preventing access is encryption. The problem with this is anyone can have a wifi network, there is no controls in place. People are under no obligation to have any knowledge of the technology or the security of that technology.

Doing a google on "isp aup" gives the first hit: http://www.skypoint.com/AUP.php

iv. Make all reasonable attempts to prevent unauthenticated or unauthorized access to private systems and services, and will not allow anonymous access or relaying of messages or mailings;

So given that, at least this one isp's atittude is our users are responsible. (I suspect all isp's have something similar in place) and given that there is no requirement to have any knowledge as to how to achieve this. It would seem to suggest to me the buck should stop with the hardware manufacturers.

Just some thought.