Depends on the isp as the only legal issue is the power & frequncies they transmit at.
I know BT have a clause in their T&C's that say it's agains their rules to create a "free" hotspot.

It depends on the country.

Here in Germany, if you have an unprotected network, you are essentially offering the bandwidth as an ISP and are therefore required to keep a complete log of which MAC addresses connected at what times and the connections they made, otherwise you are liable for what the piggybacker did.

I use wire, where I can. I hate wireless. If I have to use it, I'll use WPA2 AES, anybody or any device which can't use that will have to seek an alternative network.

I can see I will have to check this out over here a bit more maybe there are some rules we need to know about .

So, they want to check the Emails on their phone. Why should I care?

Because cybercriminals and terrorists use drive-by WiFi access to conduct criminal business which would then be traced to you. You don't want to be shot in the head at dawn by the anti-terrorist squad, or put on trial for trafficking child porn.

Additionally, they may be able to gain access to your data and steal your money and identity.

Needlessly leaving your network open puts you at all kinds of risks. Just put a password on it - it's not hard and quite frankly, it's reckless not to! Being so naive might cost you your life.

Agreed JJW, if they can join your network, they can see all of the machines on your local network and access any data which is either not protected by a password or they can try a dictionary attack on the data.

If there is anything in the public folder on one of your machines, they can look at or copy that. They can also copy data onto the machines on your network.

If the machines aren't fully patched, or they have a zero day exploit, they might also be able to take control of the machine(s) on the network - E.g. install a keylogger.

Also, if you are using a network without encryption running, never connect to a website, which doesn't require an SSL connection - you shouldn't be doing that anyway, but you are more likely to be sniffed on your local network than on the net, purely because you are more targetable (this is especially true of an internet café etc. Without an SSL connection never access your e-mail server (mail client) or web mail, on-line banking etc.

Thats strange because BT have a feature on their HomeHub that when activated uses your device to create a hotspot (this though is seperate from your wireless network and does not use any of your own bandwidth apparently).

Can you get a separate contract to open a hotspot, like a café or something? Saves them money if they only have to send out and support one device...

BT will sell you the ability to become a hotspot. You have to buy voucher tickets to sell, I think you get approx. 10% of the value as your payment.

http://www.btfon.com/

"Imagine free Wi-Fi access everywhere...
BT and FON have teamed up to make this a reality.
You will get free access to any of the 250.000 BTFON hotspots in the world by sharing your Broadband connection with no impact on your home service or security

Help us to grow the biggest Wi-Fi network across the world"

I guess this probably does not apply to business users though.

Not in Germany though. It fell foul of the competition laws, so they had to cancel the service and pay out compensation to the ISPs...

I can't think of any reason NOT to secure your network, unless as mentioned, you want the ability to say "it could have been anyone, your Honour!"

As far as I am concerned, people know that Wi-Fi networks are out there, but the first stage is to change AND not broadcast your SSID. I have found loads of secured networks broadcasting their SSID, but I have found lots of unsecured networks as well. I have strolled around using software on my PDA that will find all networks that are broadcasting, even those with signals too weak to be picked up by the Wi-Fi management software.

In the past, I have found many unsecured wireless networks and even gone on to find that people have not even bothered to change their default user name and password for the router. I had the means to completely shut down their network and internet AND lock them out of the router by changing these details. Good for a laugh. I didn't BTW.

I am not aware of software alone that detects networks that are not broadcasting (and surely that's the point) but if it exists, then I bet it's only used by those who know what to do with a secured network when they do find one.

Setting the MAC codes that the router will accept for connection can only serve to make life a little more difficult for any hackers.

Ok.

1) Has anybody actually been shot in the head as a result of having no password on their Wi Fi?

2) What evidence do you have that drive by WiFi actually is a habit with terrorists?

3) How do they gain access to your Mac by simply piggybacking your WiFi?


You say it is reckless, what evidence do you have for that?

Cc, anyone can access the stuff on your mac because it shares stuff over the network automatically. Therefore it's easy to view your personal stuff.

Also, if someone does decide to download loads of child porn on your wifi, the police don't care because it's your wifi, you pay for it so you're seen as the main user.

On my ipood touch so apologies if it doesn't make sense

Likewise, there have been a few cases here of people being found guilty of letting their wi-fi be used to upload illegal or copyrighted material. They ended up with some hefty fines.