Well this month I went up to Spokane, WA for the 4th of July and to spend time hiking in upper Idaho. We stayed with relatives and I was ready to have a real vacation. I did bring my computer to check my email while I was there. I have a fiber connection to the Internet at my house, but I also pay for dial-up so when I do travel, I can dial my Covad account. I asked my Brother-in-law if he had a fast Internet connection. He did not and he stated that he only had a dial-up himself. This time I did bring all my extra PC Cards and one of them was a 802.11b card. I use "G" myself, but I also have a "B" card just in case.
Well, the first night, I connected my wireless card up and low and behold, I found a very strong wireless connection with one of his neighbors. It was wide open and he had it connected to a cable modem. I experimented and looked at his computers and found out his name was Brad. I asked my relatives if they new him but with no avail. It was not his next door neighbor because they knew both of those neighbors. It must have been the people behind them. The connection was fast and I surfed all day one day without anyone knowing. I checked my email and wrote my Technical Article after doing some research one night. It was nice because even while I was up there we needed a recipe so my wife looked one up on the net. The entire time we were up there, he never knew someone was tailgating on his internet connection.
This is very scary for most people who do not know how to tighten up their own security. I mean, if my brother-inlaw was not a very morel person, he would just invest in a $40.00 WiFi card and tap off his neighbor all year long without paying a dime for an internet connection. I wonder if people do this. Wireless is becoming more and more popular now and people can purchase these for next to nothing. It is clear to me that this person Brad had a couple of machines and his computers where in a location that they could not be connected to each other without a wireless connection. So he just ran down to his local electronics store and connected the two together.
However, he either forgot or did not know how to encrypt his network and so therefore, I borrowed his connection for the week.
So if you have a wireless connection, please incorporate Wireless Encryption Protocol in order to lock out unwanted guests. If you do not know how, it might be worth hiring a consultant.
