I can access a university's WLAN with my desktop, which is about two miles away. First, what
kind of wireless router are they using, and, am I stealing Internet access? Should I tell them
about this? I can also do this with my neighbor's network.
You
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are stealing access, at least from your neighbor. The university probably has the access point
set up for students who pay a fee, and in that case, you are stealing access from them as well.
Even the open hot-spots generally charge some fee for access to those they allow to use them. If
they leave them open as a service (like in some hotels), it is generally intended for guests. There
is a practice in this country called war chalking where
people go around and snoop for open antennas and then place a chalk X on the sidewalk to let others
know where they can access the net. It's kind of like anything else on earth, nothing is really
free. I would suggest calling the university and letting them know that it is open. This is a huge
cause of identity theft in this country. Some people even set up open access points just so they
can snoop what is going on and get information. If they let you use it, then fine, if not, you
could get in trouble. I would also suggest that you tell your neighbor that his is open as
well.
As for the distance of two miles, and what type of router they are using – who knows! You could
be attaching to a university professor that lives in your neighborhood or someone else with a
university access point connected via cable modem or DSL, so just knowing that it says the
university's name is no guaranty that it is physically located at the university.
This was first published in August 2004