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Passive-Aggressive Wi-Fi Hotspots
the digital nomad writes "If you've had enough of your neighbor stealing your Wi-Fi connection or letting his dog s#%t on your lawn, there is now a better solution than suffering in silence with your brooding anger: leave your neighbor 'a message!' Passive-Aggressive Wi-Fi Hotspots let your networks say what you cannot. And if you're looking for some great name for your Hotspot, make sure to read this post by Gizmodo."
My problems with my neighbors were not them stealing my WiFi, but in how they set up their routers... One specifically had a wide open router that for some damned reason my Wife's XP notebook would exclusively connect to, even when the signal was weaker than available preferred networks. I did everything I could to make XP either forget or disregard his network, but it would not. Something in XP (even after re-installation), simply insisted on connecting to his SSID over my secure one. This really pissed me off as the wife would establish VPNs to work, then try to print something to our printer only to find out she was not on our network, and would have to redo significant work, or the connection would just drop because his signal was weak.
Well, needless to say, he was a computer moron. Took the router out of the box, plugged it in, and went. It took about 10 seconds to log onto his device and turn the antenna off, then set a complex admin password. Every couple of days it would be back, so I'd break it again. After a few weeks, i noticed it was a new model, so I repeated the same process on it after XP continued to insist on connecting to it. (and just HER damned notebook, not any of my other 3 XP machines). I talked to him one day while I was mowing the lawn and he complained about the damned thing, and several calls to support, but they couldn't fix it, and apparently at no time ever suggested him to secure it either.
This went on for a while. He apparently rarely used his wireless (he was rarely home), and actually, i think it wasn't even his notebook, but a friend's he had the wireless for, so when I'd turn off his device, it would be a while till it came on. One Saturday though I turned it off, and it came back on quick. So, I did it again, several times in that day. He went out for a while after about the 4th time, and came back an hour later with a blue BestBuy bag with what looked like another new router. This was going to be fun...
By the end of Sunday afternoon, I had that poor bastard back to the store not less than 5 times, each time with a different router. I was practically camped by the family room window waiting to see him come and go, and had his unit shut down within minutes each time he got a new one up and running. Eventually, the wife made me go out and talk to him (honestly, even i was getting bored of the routine, and also noted this wasn't seeming to be coming to an end, he wasn't getting the hints), so I wen out and "inquired" as to the repeated trips to BestBuy. He told me his side of the story...
I said, "Oh, you're probably getting interference from someone else's system in the neighborhood, didn't support tell you that? You should secure your device" Then i offered he pay me $50 to do it for him (BestBuy was charging $149 at that time, and apparently got quite insistent that if he returned anohter device they'd not give him his money back unless they did an onsite install of the next one). he agreed, I secured it, set his SSID to hidden, and didn't have issues again (with him).
I've had other neighbors who were complete morons too. One apparently went around telling everyone else to hard set their access points to channel 2, since it was statistically the clearest channel. (I have NO idea where he got that one). It didn't phase me, but every one of them had issues... This only caused me issues because all their damned devices were only seeing my router, with all the other interference, and although it was secure, my log files occasionally filled up with people trying and failing to log on. Another convinced all the people in an apartment complex to pay him for Internet access, and set himself up as a mini ISP. Well, besides it being a huge hassle, as 15 people trying to hit his AP at once caused issues for sure, apparently one of them called support and spilled the beans. My, not being a dumb ass, maintained my own connection on a secure router, however, i had a HELL of a time proving to TWC that I was not the one sharing my conn
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
If I caught my neighbors using my internet, I'd probably copy Netzero onto a floppy, hand it to them, and say "Yes this; it's free. My Wifi is not."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Stupid should hurt. If you don't care that your neighbor is downloading kiddy porn using your network you've earned the consequences.
It's fun renaming people's hotspots when they leave them open and defaulted. I renamed my libtard neighbor's wifi "FOBAMA".
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
Be sure to leave your rifles and smallarms spread out on the porch for the entire neighborhood to use freely too!