Pwning bots just can't compare to killing you guys...>sniff<

[Axis of Eeevil]

SO in response to the overwhelming volume of concerned inquiries and PMs, I had to let you know why, as so many noticed, I have been MIA for a week!!! (utter silence broken by a lone cricket chirping)

Self deprecation aside, I lost my wireless broadband connection when one of my neighbors moved

after graduation. I always wondered where my free wireless was coming from! ( in my book, if you

don't encrypt OR set a network PW, it's called "public access point" & please don't flame me)

So I'm SOL, until I figure out my next move, which will probably be get cable installed, go to VoIP

phone service and get rid of the phone bills, set up a home network again and get back to honing

my mad medic skillz.

Um, I'm playing SP BF2 and HL2 on and off, and I gotta say: Those damn BF2 bots are shanking

me like I'm a San Quentin inmate.

Insert Bus Uncle accent here: (If you don't know what/who Bus Uncle is, get with the zeitgeist, fer cryin out loud.)

Hey! I got pressure! Me so knifey, me like thanksgiving turkey! What do you think about it, I'm on dail-up! I got bandwidth like Iraq got WMD! Aluminum Tubes and Yellowcake my ass, Rummy! We all got pressure! OK! Don't tell me about being loud, you sweatwhore!

Anyway, rediscovering other fun activities like house repairs, sweating, reading and pulling weeds.

Hope to see you all in my crosshairs or under my shock paddles soon.

|TG|A><is

[Coridon]

Originally Posted by Axis of Eeevil

I lost my wireless broadband connection when one of my neighbors moved

after graduation. I always wondered where my free wireless was coming from!

Ha ha, that's awesome. It's so unbelievably easy to set up an encrypted network so if your neighbor didn't do so that's free internets for you, sir! Well, not forever, apparently...

[UnDeaD77]

Yep, its their fault if they don't set it up, I borrowed the neighbors connection once, and it was a nice speed had 175kb/s download speed. I always make sure to encrypt my wireless connections.

[Apophis]

Oddly enough, you can still be arrested and charged with theft of services for using someone elses wireless access point even if they take no steps to encrypt or protect it.

[kornkobcom]

Originally Posted by Apophis

Oddly enough, you can still be arrested and charged with theft of services for using someone elses wireless access point even if they take no steps to encrypt or protect it.

Oddly enough you can still be arrested for auto theft, even if i leave my keys in the ignition. /sarcasm

Theft is theft. If it isn't yours, it still isn't yours if there's no lock on it.

[loyalguard]

hey Axis, if you get bored of the vanilla SP maps, check out: The Battlefield Single Player website. If you can go to a friend's or have some other source of "legal" internet access, They have a lot of cool maps and AI variations that can help fill the gap until you get back on-line. You can download a bunch of .zip map files (avg size is 40-60 MB each) and go at it.

[icky]

Originally Posted by kornkobcom

Oddly enough you can still be arrested for auto theft, even if i leave my keys in the ignition. /sarcasm

Theft is theft. If it isn't yours, it still isn't yours if there's no lock on it.

Not to sidetrack this thread too far, but I set up a wireless network for a friend of mine, and a few weeks later, he told me his mother had started using her laptop with the wireless and she really liked having it. The thing is, I had not shared any info with them about keys and such, so I knew it was impossible for his mother to be on their network.

The point is that unlike stealing a car, it is totally possible for someone to be stealing someone's wireless internet without having even the slightest clue that they are doing it. I guess the question would have to be: Is it stealing if you drive off in a car that looks identical to yours, was left in your driveway, and starts just fine with your keys?

Theft, it seems, is not always theft.

[Acid]

It's the guilt that will get you. They could monitor the traffic stream, but a person that wouldn't put encryption or a key on their wireless probably wouldn't know how to. How evil would that be to sue people for using your wireless when you don't encrypt it and then wait for them to do it?

[Axis of Eeevil]

Mmmyep.
[/quote] ...it is totally possible for someone to be stealing someone's wireless internet without having even the slightest clue that they are doing it. [/quote]

I wasn't being facetious when I said, so THAT'S where it was coming from!... Up until the neighbors moved (and they were way down the block, about 5 triplexes and a garden area away, ~300' or 100 M,) I was, and still am, not not totally sure.

At first I thought it was a perk of our housing complex, then I thought I was getting it from the HP plant a few miles away. Then my firewall had my IP listed for Comcast in a town 90 miles away, which has a town-wide public Wi-Fi access, and that really puzzled me. I have several large radio towers and cell repeaters nearby, so I thought that might be it.

It's true, though. Even though I didn't look for it, my wireless card automatically detected and connected without me telling it to (thank you, Microsoft), I am still considered a trespasser on a private property right.

I think we can all agree that the system has some catching up to do when it comes to many internet-related issues. It's a situation that resists easy simile or metaphor, although I like the car in my driveway analogy.

I'll give it a shot: I have to drive to get to work. As I walk out of my door, I have two choices on what route I take. Directly ahead is a modern, relaxing high-speed public trainline that has a right -of-way through a private country club that goes directly to my workplace. Although I am not a member, the other members of the club using the train take no notice--in fact, I have even been invited to ride the train for free by the conductor every time he stops right in front of my house, even though he has no right to extend that invitation. The owners are remotely concerned about unauthorized use, but make little effort to enforce compliance--in fact they might well view an infraction brought to their attention as a nuisance and waste of time to deal with. There are no police that watch to ensure that only members use this trainline, and I can save $50.00 a month if I use what's right in front of me.

My other choice is to take a slow bus on a long, roundabout way just to get on the other end of the private property tocatch the train. The road is congested and has potholes, while the bus is prone to breakdowns and costs a toll to use, even though it often can't even get me to work on time, and sometimes not at all.

Although I wish I could be so altruistic as to dutifully take that stinking bus, I rode that train for as long as I could, and tried to be considerate and unobtrusive to the paying members. I'm grateful for what I had and accepted it as a gift that someone didn't even know they were giving. I would have gladly walked up to the provider's door and offered to split their cost to be allowed access, if I had ever known who it was.
Thanks, whoever you were.

|TG-Irr|A><is

[kornkobcom]

/edit nm--- not worth sidetrackign the conversation for.

[Dark Viper]

Originally Posted by Axis of Eeevil

Directly ahead is a modern, relaxing high-speed public trainline

How is it illegal to ride a public train?

[Eggplant999]

IMO odds are if they leave their network unprotected then they are not smart enough to figure out other people are using their wireless, unless they are just leaving it open in order to entrap people.