I am ... stealing Internet from my neighbor. He has wireless connection and didn't set up properly his WiFi. I was wondering if it was possible to be trace, or to be caught for stealing free Internet.

???

Thanks,
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The only way the guy can catch you is if he checks the router logs, but if he isnt smart enough to setup the wireless connection correctly then he doesnt have enough brains to go into the router and look through the logs, nor would he be intelligent enough to decifer what was in the logs. My view on these situations is that the guy deserves it for being stupid. He can only see your computer on his network if you have File and Print Sharing enabled and no firewall running. If it were me, and understand that I am a prick, I would do my best to teach the guy an important lesson by accessing the router trying the default passwords for Linksys, Belkin, DLink and other commonly sold wireless routers. He should take the wireless router back to staples and buy himself a patch cable.
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The only way the guy can catch you is if he checks the router logs, but if he isnt smart enough to setup the wireless connection correctly then he doesnt have enough brains to go into the router and look through the logs, nor would he be intelligent enough to decifer what was in the logs. My view on these situations is that the guy deserves it for being stupid. He can only see your computer on his network if you have File and Print Sharing enabled and no firewall running. If it were me, and understand that I am a prick, I would do my best to teach the guy an important lesson by accessing the router trying the default passwords for Linksys, Belkin, DLink and other commonly sold wireless routers. He should take the wireless router back to staples and buy himself a patch cable.
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I am ... stealing Internet from my neighbor. He has wireless connection and didn't set up properly his WiFi. I was wondering if it was possible to be trace, or to be caught for stealing free Internet.

???

Thanks,
[right][snapback]86496[/snapback][/right]

I'd say this person won't ever "catch you" and/or confront you for your use of his bandwidth. It would impose a certain amount of trouble on his part to do so. What he will do is "get a clue" and secure his wifi. Unless he actually wants to run a "Hotspot".

The other possiblity is that he can't secure his router and still connect himself. I recently tried a D-Link DI-624 that was just that way. If I tried to use WPA it would never connect. And if I used either form of WEP it would loose connection in about 30mins to an hour and never reconnect. I had to return the D-Link stuff and get some Linksys gear.

I don't want to run a Hotspot. And I have 3 computers, so I have File and Printer Sharing turned on. Then again I've changed all of the "default settings", set up the MAC filter, set up a log, and enabled WPA. If someone really wanted to hack me I know they probably could, but at least it won't be easy.

My point is that I went through a week of hell to determine that the D-Link wouldn't work with security turned on. Maybe this person isn't willing to put themselves through that kind of torment, and they don't want to bother returning the wifi gear, so they just run "wide open".
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I have to say that more than likely its a matter of someone running down to their local Staples store, purchasing a $50 Wireless router, taking it home and plugging it in. Most Wireless routers by default have the wireless network enabled with no security at all so from the moment it is plugged in you can access the wireless network. I have seen this many, many times. It is an unfortunate lesson that the router owner must learn, and learn the hard way sometimes, at least when I find a wide open wireless network they learn. I dont steal the bandwidth, I have plenty on my broadband connection, but I do screw up the configurations over and over again in the hopes that at some point the owner will learn and enable some security. I can't tell you how many people dont even assign a password to a router. Every open network I have found has also had the deafult password enabled. Some units its admin, some units its password, and the default passwords to all of these routers is easily found on the vendors support website. Type in the gateway IP, type the default password and whammo! I'm in. Now I disable DHCP, change the broadband connection parameters and whatever else I can think of doing whilst I am in there. These routers do have a reset button that restores the default config of the router, but thats all they do, reset it. So I go back in and screw it up again. I know that many people may think that this is a very nasty thing to do, and sure, there is a little pleasure on my part there, but hey, these guys need to be taught a lesson. I must have caused so many headaches for some of these people, and that makes me chuckle! Just a little chuckle.
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One thing that I've found is amazingly effective at teaching people to secure their wireless networks is to find their shared printer, wait until about midnight, then print a document with a message such as "you wireless network is unsecured, anyone can see your data" or if you're feeling nice, directions on how to secure it.  Usually printers starting "on their own" at 12:00am gets the point across nicely and scares the hell out of them at the same time.
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Thanks for you replies.

I won't mess up with his wifi, i want to keep on using his Internet so i can cut mine.


Kelp, how could he trace me back even if he knew how to decipher the log?

I mean trace me back to my house?

He could have doubt its a neighbor of his, but he can't come here and accuse me without proof.
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I've found a few stupid people over the years. For some reason, someone had their whole C: drive shared, and with full permissions. I should have left a couple hundred copies of a .txt file on his desktop to tell him how to secure it
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...Type in the gateway IP, type the default password and whammo! I'm in. Now I disable DHCP, change the broadband connection parameters and whatever else I can think of doing whilst I am in there....

No, there's no real way for him to pinpoint 'YOU' with his router. Unless he's setting out to do just that. There are a couple ways for him to tell that you're using his connection.
Primarily, all routers have a dhcp table - if he has one computer, and that's all he's connected to the net' then he'll know that someone else is using that extra IP on there. This is sort of synonymous with 'router' logs. Some routers go the extra mile to have a wireless security section which lists who is using the wireless (motorola).
Another way is if he has software that tells him this kind of stuff. AOL Network Magic is an example of a program that does this. Another is Mcafee Security Suite Wireless Edition. But chances are he doesnt' have or care about any of this if he's serving up free wireless right now.
You need to be very careful, either way. For all you know he could know EXACTLY what he's doing. There are lots of people that say, oh I wanna find a stupid person who has their wireless open so I can teach them a lesson. Well, I'm pretty sure not everyone who has open wireless is stupid.
Open up wireless, have someone 'steal' it, go on a few sites, get infected with some viruses/spyware, call his ISP and complain (which makes them start saving preparing saved logs and stuff), call your ISP and complain (assuming he's doing this on purpose, I'm sure he'd have ways to look into your computer as well), sue you for a shipload of money for damages.
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