"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
When you guys are out and about with your laptops, do you pay for
wi-fi?

How does that work?

I'm sort of new to public wi-fi, and don't really have a good feel as to
where the free hot spots are vs. where you have to pay to log on.
Therefore, I took a different approach and subscribed to Verizon's wireless
Broadband Access service. It's a bit expensive, but it's got good speed and
you don't have to worry about whether you're in range of a hot spot and what
the costs might be. I'll use traditional wi-fi when I can see that I'm in a
free hot spot, but the Verizon deal is a great fallback. Plus, it allows me
internet and email access at the lake.

"RG" wrote in message
news:PRlVf.14214$6a1.10052@fed1read04...

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
When you guys are out and about with your laptops, do you pay for
wi-fi?

How does that work?

I'm sort of new to public wi-fi, and don't really have a good feel as to
where the free hot spots are vs. where you have to pay to log on.
Therefore, I took a different approach and subscribed to Verizon's
wireless Broadband Access service. It's a bit expensive, but it's got
good speed and you don't have to worry about whether you're in range of a
hot spot and what the costs might be. I'll use traditional wi-fi when I
can see that I'm in a free hot spot, but the Verizon deal is a great
fallback. Plus, it allows me internet and email access at the lake.

While on vacation in Phoenix, last fall, I was able to catch WiFi hotspots
near some businesses, and also the RV park I was in. If they were
unsecured, I would use them to access the net. However, in this weeks
Rockford, IL. newspaper, there was a story that goes like this: A cop was
driving through a parking lot and observed a man sitting in a car. Got
closer and sees that he's using a laptop. Gets out to investigate and finds
the man is accessing the net on the unsecured WiFi of a not for profit
organization in the nearby building. End result..the man gets arrested for
using the WiFi without permission..pays a $250 fine. No jail time but
supposedly there is the option of up to 6 months of jail time. The paper
says this is similar to the theft of services you can get nailed with if you
use a descrambler on your dish or cable. It seems to me that if the not for
profit didn't see fit to password protect their wireless access, then by
default they are inviting anyone to use it.

Tom G.

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 04:41:59 GMT, "Tom G"
wrote:

End result..the man gets arrested for
using the WiFi without permission..pays a $250 fine.

The law and its jurisdiction is very muddy with regard to
"unauthorized" WiFi access. My advice is to be discreet, and above
all, admit nothing.

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:01:02 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 04:41:59 GMT, "Tom G"
wrote:

End result..the man gets arrested for using the WiFi without
permission..pays a $250 fine.

The law and its jurisdiction is very muddy with regard to "unauthorized"
WiFi access. My advice is to be discreet, and above all, admit nothing.

Yup, quite muddy, but your advice is quite accurate.

http://blog.pff.org/archives/Hale%20...0Liability.pdf

"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:01:02 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 04:41:59 GMT, "Tom G"
wrote:

End result..the man gets arrested for using the WiFi without
permission..pays a $250 fine.

The law and its jurisdiction is very muddy with regard to "unauthorized"
WiFi access. My advice is to be discreet, and above all, admit nothing.

Yup, quite muddy, but your advice is quite accurate.

http://blog.pff.org/archives/Hale%20...0Liability.pdf

Interesting PDF. In the future, I think it would be prudent to have a
solitaire game ready to pop up and a story about the wife kicking me out of
the house to have a "girlfriends" only Tupperware Party or similar. When I
got a DSL line in my home, I observed that my new laptop would identify
another WiFi access point nearby. That's since disappeared...hmmm..maybe my
neighbor has figured out it's cheaper to use mine instead of paying for his.
I'll have to look into password protecting mine.

Tom G.

"Tom G" wrote in message
news:hYrVf.2658$W75.1711@trnddc07...

"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:01:02 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 04:41:59 GMT, "Tom G"
wrote:

End result..the man gets arrested for using the WiFi without
permission..pays a $250 fine.

The law and its jurisdiction is very muddy with regard to "unauthorized"
WiFi access. My advice is to be discreet, and above all, admit nothing.

Yup, quite muddy, but your advice is quite accurate.

http://blog.pff.org/archives/Hale%20...0Liability.pdf

Interesting PDF. In the future, I think it would be prudent to have a
solitaire game ready to pop up and a story about the wife kicking me out
of the house to have a "girlfriends" only Tupperware Party or similar.
When I got a DSL line in my home, I observed that my new laptop would
identify another WiFi access point nearby. That's since
disappeared...hmmm..maybe my neighbor has figured out it's cheaper to use
mine instead of paying for his. I'll have to look into password protecting
mine.

Tom G.


Although the nearest neighbor's house is nowhere near close enough to pick
up our router signal, the server technician still programmed our service to
only connect computers with certain ID's (ours).
I tried another laptop recently that is not on the list and it would not
connect.

RCE

Tom G wrote:
"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:01:02 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 04:41:59 GMT, "Tom G"
wrote:

End result..the man gets arrested for using the WiFi without
permission..pays a $250 fine.

The law and its jurisdiction is very muddy with regard to "unauthorized"
WiFi access. My advice is to be discreet, and above all, admit nothing.

Yup, quite muddy, but your advice is quite accurate.

http://blog.pff.org/archives/Hale%20...0Liability.pdf

Interesting PDF. In the future, I think it would be prudent to have a
solitaire game ready to pop up and a story about the wife kicking me out of
the house to have a "girlfriends" only Tupperware Party or similar. When I
got a DSL line in my home, I observed that my new laptop would identify
another WiFi access point nearby. That's since disappeared...hmmm..maybe my
neighbor has figured out it's cheaper to use mine instead of paying for his.
I'll have to look into password protecting mine.

Your neighbor(s) may have got wise and stopped broadcasting system IDs.
I broadcast my ID because my wife's work laptop seems to have too much
trouble finding the network without it. I don't worry much about it as
I keep it enrypted and restrict access to a list of known MAC
addresses.

"Tom G" wrote in message
news:rYoVf.957$Od7.237@trnddc06...

"RG" wrote in message
news:PRlVf.14214$6a1.10052@fed1read04...

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
When you guys are out and about with your laptops, do you pay for
wi-fi?

How does that work?

I'm sort of new to public wi-fi, and don't really have a good feel as to
where the free hot spots are vs. where you have to pay to log on.
Therefore, I took a different approach and subscribed to Verizon's
wireless Broadband Access service. It's a bit expensive, but it's got
good speed and you don't have to worry about whether you're in range of a
hot spot and what the costs might be. I'll use traditional wi-fi when I
can see that I'm in a free hot spot, but the Verizon deal is a great
fallback. Plus, it allows me internet and email access at the lake.

While on vacation in Phoenix, last fall, I was able to catch WiFi hotspots
near some businesses, and also the RV park I was in. If they were
unsecured, I would use them to access the net. However, in this weeks
Rockford, IL. newspaper, there was a story that goes like this: A cop
was driving through a parking lot and observed a man sitting in a car.
Got closer and sees that he's using a laptop. Gets out to investigate and
finds the man is accessing the net on the unsecured WiFi of a not for
profit organization in the nearby building. End result..the man gets
arrested for using the WiFi without permission..pays a $250 fine. No jail
time but supposedly there is the option of up to 6 months of jail time.
The paper says this is similar to the theft of services you can get nailed
with if you use a descrambler on your dish or cable. It seems to me that
if the not for profit didn't see fit to password protect their wireless
access, then by default they are inviting anyone to use it.

Tom G.


If that's the same story I read, the event happened in England. However, UK
and US laws are similar, so it is probably illegal in the US as well.

RCE

While on vacation in Phoenix, last fall, I was able to catch WiFi hotspots
near some businesses, and also the RV park I was in. If they were
unsecured, I would use them to access the net. However, in this weeks
Rockford, IL. newspaper, there was a story that goes like this: A cop
was
driving through a parking lot and observed a man sitting in a car. Got
closer and sees that he's using a laptop. Gets out to investigate and
finds
the man is accessing the net on the unsecured WiFi of a not for profit
organization in the nearby building. End result..the man gets arrested
for
using the WiFi without permission..pays a $250 fine. No jail time but
supposedly there is the option of up to 6 months of jail time. The paper
says this is similar to the theft of services you can get nailed with if
you
use a descrambler on your dish or cable.

Where is the law that was applied to this? Under what statute?