"Borrowing" WiFi

[Roger Long]

Just before SBO started this forum for me, there was quite a bit of discussion about WiFi antennas vs. cell phone tethering. There is a point of view that, if someone is too lazy to secure their WiFi, why shouldn't you borrow it? Unsecured WiFi spots are getting rarer but a lot of cruisers still use them.

This story puts a different light on it:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/24/scitech/main20056899.shtml

Aside from the fact this kind of publicity is going to have most of the last holdouts leafing frantically through their wireless router manuals, I don't think I want to put infrastructure and equipment on my boat that is primarily designed to exploit what leads to these situations. There are also security issues in reverse.

There might be occasions where I'm on a marina mooring and the antenna makes the difference between being able to use the marina's WiFi or not. I doubt they'll come up often enough to justify the cost, wires, and antennas.

So, once I start cruising, you'll know when you see new posts here that I'm either in cell phone range or the laptop is within range of a legit WiFi spot.

 

[RECESS]

I was going to post about this yesterday but got busy. Georgia has had some huge task force busts in the last few years going after child porn users. In many cases these people steal unsecured wifi to try and cover their tracks.

Sometimes the images are downloaded or shared by using an unsecured wireless network of a neighbor so the residents at the houses searched may not be aware that their Internet connections were used to disseminate child pornography, Keenan said.
Forty teams were dispatched Tuesday, going to addresses based on when investigations showed the suspects would be home.

It is not a good time to be leaving wifi unsecured. Who knows what people are doing with their computers if you are thinking of borrowing their wifi.

http://www.ajc.com/news/44-suspects-arrested-in-273098.html

 

[Bill1565]

Roger, you remain an inspiration to us amateurs. Mary and I had back to back great short cruises to Miami and to Clearwater. Used tethered cell phones the whole way. Planning 10 months on the boat in 2012. Punta Gorda to Miami for the boat show in February, to Chesapeake for the summer, Annapolis boat show in October then home in the winter. Cell phone amplifier, no wifi.

 

[Steve Kamp]

On our trip down the ICW in 07 and return in 08, we did look for wi-fi hotspots and they were pretty far and weak signaled. On the rare instances when we did use a marina, they usually offered access to their wi-fi/broadband net, often password protected, and sometimes free with slip rent, sometimes for a seperate fee by the hour/day/week/or month. Now we are equiped with Verizon Broad Band; if we can get a cell phone signal we also have net access.

 

[Debra B]

It is not a good time to be leaving wifi unsecured. Who knows what people are doing with their computers if you are thinking of borrowing their wifi.

http://www.ajc.com/news/44-suspects-arrested-in-273098.html

Funny to see using unsecured WiFi as "unknown" with respect to the law. The early rulings were that if you didn't have permission, (and that meant written) you were in violation of federal law on "unauthorized access." (If I leave my front door open, does that mean you can steal my TV? No.) I guess the courts can't agree on it.

Aside from the fact that putting your passwords on non-secured wireless is a great way to give your identity away to anyone listening, using a secured service is not very expensive today.

 

[dparilla]

I would recommend against using an unsecured wireless access point. There are lots of nefarious people out there who use an open router to lure people in. Once you are on a router, it is easier to hack your terminal. I did a demo for an apartment dwelling friend, using an open router and had about 10 random people on it in 15minutes, one of whom kept trying to access a chinese website....Of course, i had turned off internet access, but it was telling to see how quickly people tried to jump on.

 

[Auspicious]

I use AT&T 3G data services in my travel laptop. I accept the reduced coverage compared to Verizon in exchange for easy use in other countries.

On my own boat I have a Bullet-based wifi system with an internal wifi-network on the boat. The same network hooks my AIS, chartplotter, radar, and Pactor modem together with my laptop. I use the Bullet to connect to marina and community wireless that is very often much faster than 3G. In the Bahamas and Caribbean it's faster AND cheaper.

A few hundred dollars in hardware and a day of installation and I have a system that provides good to great connectivity that can be shared by my computer, iPhone, and guest's devices.