Poll: Woman Calls Tech Guy About Stolen Wi-Fi Network

[Jiggabyte]

Apparently this video is going around the internet. I just got linked over Twitter.
A woman innocently calls up about her problem accessing a wireless network without realising she has actually been stealing her neighbour's internet connection for a year and a half.
I guess lot of people who will be reading this know all about stealing wi-fi, and probably recognise the clueless figure of "Jennifer" (my grandfather talks just like her, down to the purchase of a wireless extender.) Maybe that's why it's getting popular. Or maybe her insistence that it's "not uncommon" is just too funny. You decide.

So, my fellow Escapists, have you stolen wi-fi before? Been the victim of it? What's your opinion?

I understand the odd use of an unprotected network, but our neighbours stole our connection regularly when we didn't bother protecting it a year or two back and it took a heavy toll on the speed and reliability. More concerning was the point raised about the security, which is why I wasted no time when we got the new network getting some encryption going.

 

[Trifixion]

I don't use wireless at home, and I make sure all the wi-fi networks at work are locked down as much as possible.

 

[Plinglebob]

I've never stolen it because my neighbours have theirs locked down tight

 

[WrongSprite]

Nah, mines fine. Don't think my neighbours show up anyways.

 

[tomtom94]

This reminds me that I need to encrypt the network properly, but the last time I tried changing the security and SSID, my router just ignored me ¬.¬
It is fairly regular now. Doesn't make it right though.

 

[Timotei]

I don't steal wi-fi, and I'm sure not many of us here do. I on the other hand am sure to have a long, convoluted, incoherent password that is just a random throw together of numbers at letters. It makes it near impossible to get it right.

 

[USSR]

Sometimes I link my iPod Touch with a random wifi source.

Thats about it though.

 

[Irridium]

Ours used to be unprotected, and slow as hell.

Funny thing was when we started protecting it, our neighbor's brought up how "the internet died".

Funny stuff.

 

[AfroTree]

I don't steal wi-fi, and I'm sure not many of us here do. I on the other hand am sure to have a long, convoluted, incoherent password that is just a random throw together of numbers at letters. It makes it near impossible to get it right.

aah, but then the inevitab..ineve...the time comes dammit when you will disconnect, or otherwise lose said password, and what then! HMM?

and, nice video?..I don't steal wireless , but I may be getting stolen from

 

[Jiggabyte]

I don't steal wi-fi, and I'm sure not many of us here do.

Weird. I know quite a few people from different places who just use their neighbour's wi-fi at will. Generally people who are just moved in or live in a rather built-up area. I have noticed lately a lot of the wireless networks going up are secured, though. I'm pretty sure when the tech guys fit a router these days they try to set up proper security too.

 

[Lullabye]

DOing it as I type right now. I have my own, but it's down right now and quite frankly I live in an apartment building with alot of geeks and techies, so I'm not sure why I even use my own in the first place. Theirs is better anyways.
Wireless in general I try to avoid though, since it tends to cause more problems then it's worth, but my cable got cut open so.....yeah. Nobody in the building cares about using the different connectio0ns though, if they did then they would put passwords on them.

 

[LeonLethality]

If by stealing wifi you mean using my schools wifi then yes I do.

A year or two ago we didn't have any password on ours but when we got a new one with a better signal (our old one gave out every now and then) we put a password on it, I have no doubt that someone stole our signal every now and then.

 

[Jiggabyte]

I don't steal wi-fi, and I'm sure not many of us here do. I on the other hand am sure to have a long, convoluted, incoherent password that is just a random throw together of numbers at letters. It makes it near impossible to get it right.

aah, but then the inevitab..ineve...the time comes dammit when you will disconnect, or otherwise lose said password, and what then! HMM?

Push the "reset" button. Be kind of a ***** if you could lock yourself out of your own network like that.

 

[AfroTree]

I don't steal wi-fi, and I'm sure not many of us here do. I on the other hand am sure to have a long, convoluted, incoherent password that is just a random throw together of numbers at letters. It makes it near impossible to get it right.

aah, but then the inevitab..ineve...the time comes dammit when you will disconnect, or otherwise lose said password, and what then! HMM?

Push the "reset" button. Be kind of a ***** if you could lock yourself out of your own network like that.

making a point here......d'ya mind?...well the point is gone, screw it D:

 

[(whitty name here)]

Linking a laptop to an internet hotspot or an iPod to a random router is about as far as I go. The video was sad though, I had trouble watching her stupidity be displayed on television.

 

[Jiggabyte]

If by stealing wifi you mean using my schools wifi then yes I do.

Nah. My college has wi-fi access across campus and my old secondary school didn't exactly object to people connecting either. If they don't want you using it and have taken no steps to stop you then they pretty much deserve their usually-high-speed connection being Shanghaied by surfing scallywags.

 

[iLikeHippos]

If I'm really bored on buss stops that's close to apartments with those wi-fi connections, I tend to open my laptop and stealz thair INTERWEBZ! MUA-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAAA!...

 

[sogortheogre]

Once I was at my aunt's house, she doesn't have great internet, and there were a lot of people there trying to use it... so my cousin and I used the neighbors connection for a bit, but its not like we had been leeching off of it for a couple of years.