Forty bucks for high-speed Internet access? Not a bad deal. But how does free sound?

To a growing number of Internet piggy-backers, it's the sweet sound of pirating their neighbor's wireless network.

Most new computers are equipped for wireless Internet access, and more and more people opting for Wi-Fi in their homes. But as the networks become stronger and more prevalent, more of those signals are available outside the home of the subscriber, spilling over into neighbor's apartments, hallways and the street.

Add to this the growing number of cafes and other public "hot spots" that offer Wi-Fi (for wireless fidelity) connections and the ability to buy more powerful antennas that can pick up signals several hundred feet away. The coverage in some places can be pretty near flawless.

One study by Jupiter Research said 14 percent of wireless network owners have accessed their neighbor's connection. Yet evidence suggests that more and more people are logging on for free.

[URL="http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/08/technology/personaltech/internet_piracy/index.htm?cnn=yes"][COLOR=#0000ff]http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/08/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes[/COLOR][/URL]

[B]This is why it is important to SECURE YOUR WIRELESS ACCESS. [/B] Use the links below for steps you can take to make sure you're wireless access is not being pinched from:

Securing your Wireless Network [URL="http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/wireless_secure.htm"][COLOR=#0000ff]http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ess_secure.htm[/COLOR][/URL]

Wireless LAN security guide [URL="http://www.lanarchitect.net/Articles/Wireless/SecurityRating/"][COLOR=#0000ff]http://www.lanarchitect.net/Articles...ecurityRating/[/COLOR][/URL]

Ten Steps to a Secure Wireless Network [URL="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,844020,00.asp"][COLOR=#0000ff]http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,844020,00.asp[/COLOR][/URL]

How to do it: Securing your wireless LAN [URL="http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2004/1004wirelesshowto.html"][COLOR=#0000ff]http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/...lesshowto.html[/COLOR][/URL]

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

any links on stealing our neighbours WiFi though ? 2 meg connection sucks i need more speed

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

A guy in Florida was recently convicted of a felony for stealing someone else's WiFi connection. A man in his house noticed a pickup truck parked out front with a guy sitting in it tapping away at his laptop, got the plate number and turned him in.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=skahound]A guy in Florida was recently convicted of a felony for stealing someone else's WiFi connection. A man in his house noticed a pickup truck parked out front with a guy sitting in it tapping away at his laptop, got the plate number and turned him in.[/quote]

hmmmmmmm a felony conviction for stealing internet access from the air waves. IMO there is more to this than just stealing the access. I do not know how much wireless internet costs but I am pretty sure it does not add up to enough money to be qualified as a felony. Am i missing something here?

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

I laugh when the neighbours try using our massive 150k connection. Foolish people :roll:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[FONT=Tahoma]i've been wondering a bit about this lately. don't have a laptop with wifi, but the PSP has wifi and now has an internet browser. when i run a search for signals from my couch i can pick up sometime up to twenty different signals but all seem to be locked up by a password. are there ways around that? [/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma][/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma]but if there are ways around it does the ip numbers of the laptop or psp or whatever show up on the computer that the account belongs to. is this something that is easy to track down.[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma][/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma]this is one of the few computer thing i know very little about. :roll: [/FONT]

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[QUOTE=cowardly dj]Am i missing something here?[/QUOTE]

[quote]"Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon's house using a laptop computer."

If Smith is convicted, it will be a "a third-degree felony" based on the charge of "unauthorized access to a computer network." [/quote]

A felony charge doesn't always have to be for monetary reasons.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[QUOTE=daveman][FONT=Tahoma]i've been wondering a bit about this lately. don't have a laptop with wifi, but the PSP has wifi and now has an internet browser. when i run a search for signals from my couch i can pick up sometime up to twenty different signals but all seem to be locked up by a password. are there ways around that? [/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma][/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma]but if there are ways around it does the ip numbers of the laptop or psp or whatever show up on the computer that the account belongs to. is this something that is easy to track down.[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma][/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma]this is one of the few computer thing i know very little about. :roll: [/FONT][/QUOTE] your MAC address will show up next to the IP address that was leased. most wireless routers lease IP addresses ~7 days by default, so even if you haven't used their internet for 7 days it'll still be assigned to you. Regardless, it'll be in their logs for months

I don't have WEP on my wireless, but I do have MAC filters. if someone wants to piggyback on my signal, that'll give 'em a run for their money before they give up. they'll have a solid wireless connection, but no internet access at all :lol:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

a felony conviction for using the internet access without authorizatoin yet sex offenders get probation......... hmmmmmmmmmm

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

In my old apt building I could piggyback probably 30 different people.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=daveman][FONT=Tahoma] are there ways around that? [/FONT][/quote]

Yeah, get your own service you freeloader! :roll:

This article missed what I consider to be the real issue, what are the wireless theives doing with your IP address? Anyone who doesn't secure their wireless router is a moron, IMO. The kid next door is sharing copywrited music with YOUR IP address. The dirty old man upstairs is looking at kiddie porn with YOUR IP address. The pimple faced teenager down the hall thinks he's a hacker, but he's not good enough to avoid being caught, with YOUR IP address.

You wake up the next day to a law suit from the RIAA, a Megan law, and the FBI knocking on your door. "It wasn't me, I didn't do it!!"

Yeah, but we have your name on it... :Anal:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

I'm with Kobe. The problem should be of the owner of the connection. It's their responsability to secure their WiFi....

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[QUOTE=picklemonkey]I don't have WEP on my wireless, but I do have MAC filters. if someone wants to piggyback on my signal, that'll give 'em a run for their money before they give up. they'll have a solid wireless connection, but no internet access at all :lol:[/QUOTE] From what I have heard, it is pretty easy to clone a MAC address, just changing a property or registry setting or something. I guess wireless is just massively insecure :roll:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

i do not care. interweb is free.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=Kobe]Yeah, get your own service you freeloader! :roll: [/quote]

[FONT=Tahoma]:oops: - i didn't want to sound like freeloader. like i said the whole wifi thing is new to me because i don't have anything with it currently. well other than the psp, like i mentioned. i just wanted a way to get the internet working on it regaurdless of where i was. it seems to always find a signal, just can't connect to anything.[/FONT]

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

At 1st I thought it said, Stealing your neighbours Wife.

I think it is a bit ridiculous trying to steal internet access. They [U]should[/U] be charged with felonies for being that bloody stupid to steal something that is basically free. I mean at least dial up is next to nothing.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

This post is brought to you through the miracle of stolen wifi....

My ethical question is this.... I am crashing on a friend's couch for a month in between apartments, my router is in storage and her dsl is finicky, is it ok to "borrow temporarily" wireless?

Is it ok that, I dont care if it's ok or not? I'll be goddamned if I dont have interweb...

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

Most of my neighbors in my building are too stupid to restrict their networks whatsoever. One of them has their network named "wireless porn".:lol:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[QUOTE=demonAfro]From what I have heard, it is pretty easy to clone a MAC address, just changing a property or registry setting or something. I guess wireless is just massively insecure :roll:[/QUOTE] not quite... MAC addresses are flashed into the hardware chips, and aren't changeable by a reg setting/software property. Some cards do let you re-flash the card firmware with a new MAC address, but all MAC authentication is performed on the wireless router, meaning it's not broadcasted to the user. They would need to guess the correct MAC address and authenticate it... keep in mind there are 281474976710656 (256^6) different unique possibilities in a MAC address.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

i do it all tha time

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

mac addresses can be cloned by routers, you cant edit / change a mac address by going into the software / registry.... its a digital fingerprint of sorts

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

getting a valid mac address wouldnt be a problem...you can just sniff it. WEP encryption isnt that strong either.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

That’s low. lol

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=heretic]getting a valid mac address wouldnt be a problem...you can just sniff it. WEP encryption isnt that strong either.[/quote]

I'd like to know how you can remotely sniff a MAC addy

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[QUOTE=Encryption]I'd like to know how you can remotely sniff a MAC addy[/QUOTE] if you're using a packet sniffer it can be done very easily--just a checkbox in the packet sniffer I use. but I'm not sure if you can still sniff the traffic if you don't have an IP address to begin with... I suppose if you're connected to the router (even without an IP) you'll be able to get the MAC address.

I doubt anybody would change the MAC address on their system to one currently in use, though. if someone wanted to use a wireless router that bad and knew to change their MAC address, they'd probably consider the huge amounts of collisions that would likely occur and just give up.

maybe not though :not me:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

Why WEP is so easy to crack:

[QUOTE] Wep is really an unsafe method of securing a wireless network. What makes wep really unsafe is the 32 bit ICV being static for each frame. This opens a wide variety of techniques to be used to crack a wep key. In this article we will try to understand how the most spread wep cracking tools work and in the end we will review them giving some practical ideas of how successfull they can be.

[LEFT]Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is the protocol used in wireless networks communications to encrypt data "on air". Without it anyone could just stand with a sniffer and receive everything runs on the air. As wireless communications spread, it proved to be inadequate to secure sensible data between access points in Wireless lans and larger wireless network. The use of VPN and other kinds of encryption like DES is now considered a must for any level of security need.

WEP was launched with the launch of first models of wireless cards and access points in the early 99. It can encrypt with 64 bit up to 128 keys. Some researchers proved that the key length is not important as some breaches in the algorithm itself makes it possible to crack a wep key of any length. Moreover stronger wep keys lead to performance degradation still not bringing a much higher security level. The WEP algorithm is based upon a passphrase to generate the encryption.

The lower level of WEP encryption uses a 40 bit (10 Hex character) "secret key" (set by the user), and a 24 bit "Initialization Vector" (not under user control). Some vendors refer to this level of WEP as 40 bit, others as 64 bit. The higher level of WEP encryption, commonly referred to as 128 bit WEP, actually uses a 104 bit (26 Hex character) "secret key" (set by the user), and a 24 bit "Initialization Vector" (not under user control).

Another important aspect that should be considered is that WEP only encrypts data between 802.11 stations. Once the frame enters the wired side of the network, such as between access points, WEP no longer applies. For each frame sent the sending station can randomly change the last 24 bit of the Initialization Vector.The generated "seed" is then put into a pseudo-random number generator system that produces a keystream equal to the length of the frame's payload plus a 32-bit integrity check value (ICV) that the receiving station will recalculate and compareto the one sent by the sending station to determine correctness of information. The encrypted final data is produced by doing a bitwise XOR between the keystream and the ICV.

Decyption is held by the receiving station thanks to the first few bytes of the frame body that contain the 24-bit initialization vector (obviously unencrypted). The shared key supplied by the user of the receiving station to decrypt the payload portion of the frame body is also needed to complete the decryption process.

Changing the 24 bit Initalization vector frequently thus making frames always different between each other is fundamental for a better security level as the same ICV for each transfer makes wep crackers tools or wireless hackers job much easier. If a hacker collects enough frames based on the same 24 bit ICV, determining the keystream or the shared secret key is an easy job. This of course leads to the wireless hacker / wep cracker decrypting any of the trasmitted frames.

The wep keys are not exchanged by stations being completely static giving the wep cracker all the time needed to take his attack to success. In the end WEP is the most used encryption system used above all in wireless lans contest. It is the minimum security level one should have when dealing with a wireless connection. When sensible data should travel "on air" better kind of security restrictions should be taken.

Or instead of deciphering our jargon, there are several programs: Airsnort, Aircrack, Kismet, WepLab, chopchop, WepWedgie, AirTraf, and Asleap, wep tools that work wonders! [/QUOTE][/LEFT]

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

Sure, Kismet would do the sniffing. [URL="http://www.kismetwireless.net/"]http://www.kismetwireless.net/[/URL] Netstumbler would do the searching. [URL="http://www.netstumbler.com"]www.netstumbler.com[/URL] WEP Key encryption breaking (its a matter of how many packets you get to sniff) [URL="http://sourceforge.net/projects/airsnort"]http://sourceforge.net/projects/airsnort[/URL]

There are many tools, of course doing it all on *nix makes life easier.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

^^ I wish I had this info when I flew recently...... I'd get free wireless on the airports :p

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

If you don't know, now you know!

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

I view WEP the same way I do The Club steering wheel lock for cars. It's easy to get past, but the point is to at least make it harder to steal verses the next guy who has no protection. Why waste time trying to crack my WEP key when there's 5 other networks in range which are completely unprotected?

The only reason why I use WEP is because I set up wireless so my Tivo can get updates via broadband without having to run wires across the house, and Tivo can't work with any of the stronger encryption protocals.

Pickle, that MAC address filtering idea sounds very solid to me.... :Bingo:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=picklemonkey]your MAC address will show up next to the IP address that was leased. most wireless routers lease IP addresses ~7 days by default, so even if you haven't used their internet for 7 days it'll still be assigned to you. Regardless, it'll be in their logs for months

I don't have WEP on my wireless, but I do have MAC filters. if someone wants to piggyback on my signal, that'll give 'em a run for their money before they give up. they'll have a solid wireless connection, but no internet access at all :lol:[/quote] Umm mac addresses are easily cloneable. A quick sniff will pick that up since your not encrypting your traffic (Mac address are in packet headers).

**edit posted this before I saw others say the same thing.

Anyone who is interested can go to remote-exploit.org and dl a copy of the security auditor disk. Its the swiss army knife of utilities, boots up its own Linux build, runs from the disk, wep cracking, sniffer, etc.

Also of note: when I was trying to sniff out my own network and crack the key I could not pull down any packets- then I figured out why: I was running sveasoft firmware on my router and had the operating channel set at 13 or 14 (not allowed in the US), which made the network invisible since the US cards are looking for 1-12 (IIRC).

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=miketpoto]This post is brought to you through the miracle of stolen wifi....

My ethical question is this.... I am crashing on a friend's couch for a month in between apartments, my router is in storage and her dsl is finicky, is it ok to "borrow temporarily" wireless?

Is it ok that, I dont care if it's ok or not? I'll be goddamned if I dont have interweb...[/quote]

I don't think the issue has been taken up in the courts, but things to consider:

The freq. wireless (internet) operates at is in the public spectrum. If someone was listening to your favorite song across the street and the were playing it loud enough for you to hear this would be the equilivent of them transmitting their wireless signal into your apartment. Secondly if DHCP address are being served consider that your invitation to come in. Basically it comes down to this, if the person hasn't made a reasonable attempt to keep their network 'theirs' or keep intruders out I wouldn't feel bad using it. I'm surprised that in a city like NY you don't have the city providing it. Hell, they are providing it here for free (Seattle), even the buses have their own access points.

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=picklemonkey]not quite... MAC addresses are flashed into the hardware chips, and aren't changeable by a reg setting/software property. Some cards do let you re-flash the card firmware with a new MAC address, but all MAC authentication is performed on the wireless router, meaning it's not broadcasted to the user. They would need to guess the correct MAC address and authenticate it... keep in mind there are 281474976710656 (256^6) different unique possibilities in a MAC address.[/quote]

Here's how easy it is: Changing the MAC address in W2K and XP Method 1: This is depending on the type of Network Interface Card (NIC) you have. If you have a card that doesn?t support Clone MAC address, then you have to go to second method. [LIST] [LIST] [] Go to Start->Settings->Control Panel and double click on Network and Dial-up Connections.
[] Right click on the NIC you want to change the MAC address and click on properties.
[] Under ?General? tab, click on the ?Configure? button
[] Click on ?Advanced? tab
[] Under ?Property section?, you should see an item called ?Network Address? or "Locally Administered Address", click on it.
[] On the right side, under ?Value?, type in the New MAC address you want to assign to your NIC. Usually this value is entered without the ?-? between the MAC address numbers.
[] Goto command prompt and type in ?ipconfig /all? or ?net config rdr? to verify the changes. If the changes are not materialized, then use the second method.
[] If successful, reboot your systems.
[/LIST] [/LIST] The other method I omitted does indeed change it via the registry. See the site below for more info.

[url]http://www.nthelp.com/NT6/change_mac_w2k.htm[/url]

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

thanks, good to know. I didn't know you could change it via the OS... thought it was firmware flash only. regardless, if the user did figure out the MAC address that I'm using, it'd conflict with my network traffic and would be very ineffective.

knowing my neighbors, they'd have better chances figuring out my MAC address by guessing the one-in-281.4 trillion number. go play the lottery instead :lol:

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

[quote=picklemonkey]thanks, good to know. I didn't know you could change it via the OS... thought it was firmware flash only. regardless, if the user did figure out the MAC address that I'm using, it'd conflict with my network traffic and would be very ineffective.

knowing my neighbors, they'd have better chances figuring out my MAC address by guessing the one-in-281.4 trillion number. go play the lottery instead :lol:[/quote]

You know I've actually considered creating a seperate VLAN so I can offer some bandwidth to anyone snooping, but keeping my traffic private. I want to open it up so if RIAA or MPAA were to come after me I could say it was someone else may have been using my network for such activities. I don't download mainstream stuff at all but once in a blue moon I might grab a tv show and I know they have been considering going after those people too (even though I have a Mythtv which I can use to record the show in the first place). Either way I can say it wasn't me. :D

Re: Stealing your neighbors WiFi

:lol:

i've actually considered opening mine up and offering it to all the neighbors just for the hell of it. doubt it'd reach more than 2 neighbors, though