Last week, one of my work-tasks was to set up a wireless network in a client’s new office. Before I even turned it on though, I was picking up a wide-open Linksys-g signal from somewhere, and the possibilities of where it was coming from were limited to just a couple of places. I went ahead and set up the office I was working on, then on my way out, knocked on the neighboring office doors to see if I could identify who was leaking free wifi.<\/p>\n
No one was home. All the possible candidates were businesses with an identifiable need for security — the kind of businesses with records they wouldn’t want the public just browsing through.<\/p>\n
Today, I was back ironing out the kinks in my client’s print system, and the mysterious free wifi was still broadcasting strong as before. So, on my way out after straightening out the printer problems, I again knocked on the nearest door. Someone was home, and verified that indeed they were the office with a problem.<\/p>\n
The secretary had no idea how to fix it, so I paused for a few minutes to walk her through setting up WPA security. Just about the time I walked away from her computer, my client called — they’d been kicked off the network! <\/p>\n
You know what happened: they were picking up the free wireless from next door instead of their own. Once the problem next door was fixed, they went offline. I patched in the proper security code for their network, and all’s well again.<\/p>\n
Good deed for the day is done.<\/p>\n
* * *
You know, I’m completely on board with the need for municipal wireless, and businesses offering free wireless are definitely more likely to have me as a customer than those that don’t. I’ll choose Panera over Starbucks, Krystal over McDonalds, and any hotel with access over any hotel without, every time. Hint: the Time Out Deli in Grove Center is going to find me hanging out more often, since AT set them up last week. Good beer, good food, AND wireless!<\/p>\n
But, free wireless as a perk to attract customers is entirely different than just leaving your network open because you don’t know how to secure it. The latter is dangerous for businesses (or people) that don’t intend to open their network to the world. There are plenty of folks out there who are both smarter and more devious than myself… and they’ll exploit these weaknesses for fun and profit.<\/p>\n
I haven’t practiced any "wardriving" to see just how many open networks there are around here, but I’d be willing to bet we’re not far from having muni-wireless now — just unintentionally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, one of my work-tasks was to set up a wireless network in a client’s new office. Before I even turned it on though, I was picking up a wide-open Linksys-g signal from somewhere, and the possibilities of where … Continue reading