Robert Cringely is always fun to read. He does stuff that we all have done – or wish we had the nerve to do. In his April 14th article, he writes how he has “borrowed” bandwidth from his neighbors (details can be found here). A summary of his efforts is as follows:
- He helped his neighbors set up their wireless routers (WRT54G, of course).
- He informed them (during installation) that he would keep a “back door” avaialble – just in case they needed support.
- He exploited that back door to do some experimentation
- The experimentation is nothing exceptional. He put some antennas on his home and he connected to his neighbors routers. He used Vicomsoft’s Internet Gateway as a management tool and Sveasoft as the router software. Note: It’s not clear if he put Sveasoft on the neighbors router originally. If he did, I wonder whether or not he complied with Sveasoft’s licensing terms and conditions! 😉
All Bob’s efforts at authorized bandwidth theft aside, I wonder how many folks truly realize how insecure their wireless home networks truly are. I have written and delivered a number of presentations on the subject. Nevertheless, I am still amazed at how many people have wide-open access to systems that store their financial and personal information.
If you have a wireless network at home, please take extra steps to secure your systems. If you need help, drop me a note or check out the following sites:
- Microsoft has some good articles that offer hints.
- PC Mag has a bunch of articles. Here is a good start.
- Check out Practically Networked guide on the subject.
- Check out About.com’s guide. I used parts of this guide for a recent KCCMG presentation. It is simple and executable for most computer-literate folks.
-CyclingRoo-