[X4U] Re: Wireless "theft"

[Robert Ameeti]

At 5:11 PM +1000, 6/16/05, Brett Conlon wrote:

>I've gotta ask... do your clients know of your benevolence with 
>their networks???

Yes. And they appreciate the ease of access that they have and their 
guests have.

>What about the personal risk of giving someone easy access to your 
>IP packets while you're internet banking or using your credit card 
>for a purchase?

I've realized that it is far easier for a thief to find credit card 
info in other ways. Friends working at a gas station, Wal-Mart, etc. 
The number of people that you hand your credit card over to are many. 
The number of people who can sniff a wireless network are very, very 
few. And the time that it takes to sit outside a business or home 
waiting for a credit card would be many, many hours. In that same 
amount of time, a thief could have been handed dozens of credit 
cards. The reality is that most wireless networks are set up 
insecured. Drive any residential neighborhood. Are you hearing that 
those people are getting stolen from?

>Do you back up your computer's data? I'm sure you do. Why? Because you and
>I know it's too late to wish you had after your drive is dead. 
>Similarly, it's too late to wish you had "closed off" your network 
>after you find a huge sum of money has arrived on your credit card - 
>that you can't account  for.

And if it did, I quick phone call would get it removed. In the 
businesses that I consult for, the reality is that stolen checks are 
far more common.

>As for others using (or mooching off) your internet connection, I know my
>mum has a download threshold and then her bandwidth is severely choked for
>the rest of the month. She wouldn't bee too thrilled to find out that it's
>because of a neighbour she keeps exceeding her limit and dramatically
>slowing down.

We don't have any limitations like that in Los Angeles.

>And what if they are downloading a huge file on your network, that's gotta
>slow you down anyway, right? You paid for a specific bandwidth and you're
>not getting what you paid for.

People sitting outside a home or business are not there if their 
goals are huge files. People who want huge files have internet 
connections. They don't get their internet by borrowing. Remember, 
speed slows at greater distances.
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Robert Ameeti

The best automobile safety device is a rearview mirror with a cop in it.
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