Free wi-fi abuse

[Shrykull]

I've never used a free spot, but I've thought since anyone could go on, it opens up the door for lots of fraudulent activity, someone could go online, and say- sign someone up for adultfriendfinder.com saying they hate their wife and telling them to call them at home, and be out of there in a few minutes.

[NoXion]

And how is it any different if one uses an internet cafe to do that, apart from the cost? Many people use the internet for malicious purposes without having to resort to using free wi-fi hotspots.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Man, how about those pay phones, huh? Anyone could pick one up and make threatening phone calls to people.

[General Zod]

I've never used a free spot, but I've thought since anyone could go on, it opens up the door for lots of fraudulent activity, someone could go online, and say- sign someone up for adultfriendfinder.com saying they hate their wife and telling them to call them at home, and be out of there in a few minutes.

I hear if you leave your home's front door unlocked it leaves you open to being robbed blind.

[Superman]

I've never used a free spot, but I've thought since anyone could go on, it opens up the door for lots of fraudulent activity, someone could go online, and say- sign someone up for adultfriendfinder.com saying they hate their wife and telling them to call them at home, and be out of there in a few minutes.

I hear if you leave your home's front door unlocked it leaves you open to being robbed blind.

Yeah? Well, get this... If you go to the post office, fill out those "change of address" forms, and mail them, you can put a forwarding address on anyone's mail... no signature or ID is required.

AND if there's someone you want to get back at, you can go to the library, fill out the magazine subscription forms as someone else, mail it... and wa la. That person will have new magazine subscriptions. And there's NOTHING they can do about it! WAHAHAHA. (Actually, all they have to do is contact the magazine and say they were a victim of fraud, but since lots of people around here love to assume the worst, I thought I would throw that in.)

[Superman]

I've never used a free spot, but I've thought since anyone could go on, it opens up the door for lots of fraudulent activity, someone could go online, and say- sign someone up for adultfriendfinder.com saying they hate their wife and telling them to call them at home, and be out of there in a few minutes.

Yeah, which will inevitably lead to a divorce. What an evil evil plan...

[Ghost Rider]

I've never used a free spot, but I've thought since anyone could go on, it opens up the door for lots of fraudulent activity, someone could go online, and say- sign someone up for adultfriendfinder.com saying they hate their wife and telling them to call them at home, and be out of there in a few minutes.

I hear if you leave your home's front door unlocked it leaves you open to being robbed blind.

Yeah? Well, get this... If you go to the post office, fill out those "change of address" forms, and mail them, you can put a forwarding address on anyone's mail... no signature or ID is required.

AND if there's someone you want to get back at, you can go to the library, fill out the magazine subscription forms as someone else, mail it... and wa la. That person will have new magazine subscriptions. And there's NOTHING they can do about it! WAHAHAHA. (Actually, all they have to do is contact the magazine and say they were a victim of fraud, but since lots of people around here love to assume the worst, I thought I would throw that in.)

Dude, don't tell everyone about the secret plan to rule the world!

[Glocksman]

All bullshit aside, the real danger in not securing your own Wi-Fi network is that someone will use your connection for shit like kiddie porn, running scams, or anything else that can be a real problem to you if it's traced back to your IP address.

Frankly, I *don't* want to have to explain to the FBI that I let a child molester download kiddie porn off of my network, or get sued by the RIAA for illegal filesharing, because I was a dumbass and didn't use WPA encryption because it's 'too hard' to set up.

However, for various reasons, such problems don't legally exist for your public library's free Wi-Fi or the local Starbucks.

[General Zod]

All bullshit aside, the real danger in not securing your Wi-Fi network is that someone will use your connection for shit like kiddie porn, running scams, or anything else that can be a real problem to you if it's traced back to your IP address.

Frankly, I *don't* want to have to explain to the FBI that I let a child molester download kiddie porn off of my network, or get sued by the RIAA for illegal filesharing, because I was a dumbass and didn't use WPA encryption because it's 'too hard' to set up.

Of course, this is one of those self-evident things for anyone even remotely aware of the security risks involved with setting up a wireless network.

[Edward Yee]

Incidentally... how safe am I if I actually, through my wireless router's setup utility, actually turn off broadcasting of the ID?

[Glocksman]

Not very.
The only real security for Wi-Fi home networks is strong (WPA or WPA2) encryption.
Your SSID, along with the adapter's MAC address can be sniffed out easily enough, so all you really get from MAC address lockouts and not broadcasting the ID is a false sense of security.

[Edward Yee]

And what if WPA-PSK is applied in addition? (I'd be interested in WPA2/WPA2-PSK, but I don't know if it's compatible with certain Apple laptops.)

[Glocksman]

WPA-PSK with a long passphrase is the real security.

Without it, all ID and MAC blocking does is keep Joe Random from inadvertently logging onto your network, because it won't keep someone who really wants in out.

On my own setup, I use WPA2 with a maximum length randomly generated passphrase and don't bother with SSID blocking or MAC lockouts.