[P1] OT: Setting up Public Wi-Fi

[Scott Warren]

On Mar 11, 2004, at 9:47 AM, Nikon's World wrote:
>
> For a little protection from people on the street, set your router to 
> not send out your ssid and change the default network name.

... and change the default password!!!!

>
> Neither wardriving or using a sniffer program is illegal. Anyone with 
> a wifi enabled laptop should have at least one sniffer program on 
> there computer, I have two.
>

That is a big on going debate.  Wardriving is simply receiving signals 
no different than a radio or antenna tv.  Owning a sniffer is like 
owning a gun... no its not illegal in the least, its how it gets used 
that causes the problem.  Heck, I use a sniffer to tell me what my 
passwords are when I forget an email password that the email client has 
stored.  Just turn on the sniffer, check email, and across the screen 
in plain text you see "password: t0p$ecret".   Oh, when I said 
"sniffer", I mean IP packet sniffers more so than wifi signal 
sniffers...

I was surprised when I looked into current legislation and active laws 
about computers... Just connecting to someone's computer or network 
device with out permissions is illegal, even if you do not do anything 
malicious.