Video player not working?0:000:000:00SettingsQualityAutoAudioSpeed1×CaptionsOffMoron Calls Tech Show Wanting To Know Where Her Wifi WentDula TVFunny videos since 2008Thumbs up0Thumbs down0 Share1.5K views Feb 2010A caller asks a tech radio host why her neighborhood Wi-Fi disappeared, then admits she had been using a neighbor’s connection without permission. Show transcript0:00Jennifer's our next caller in Long Beach, California. Hi, Jennifer, Leo Laporte, The Tech Guy.0:05Yes, hi. Am I on?0:07You are on.0:08Yes. Hi, for over a year and a half in my apartment, I was able to connect through wireless, the Linksys.0:16Mhm.0:17And that's disappeared now for about 3 weeks. So I bought the USB, I'm working on Vista Basic on a HP laptop, and so I bought the Linksys wireless extender0:30Mm-hmm.0:30with the M standard.0:32Mm-hmm.0:32And I'm finding it's not solved the problem at all.0:36So you have, let me just, silly question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway.0:40You have a wireless access point to begin with.0:43Well, it disappeared, so I'm trying to...0:45But, but, but, but you own one, right?0:48No.0:49Okay.0:49No, no, I'm a wireless thief.0:50Okay. So, so you, okay. It wasn't, wasn't such a dumb question.0:56So if you want Wi-Fi, you have to contract with an internet service provider.1:01Comcast.1:02Well, I know that.1:03What, what, did you do that?1:04I don't do that. No, no.1:06You were using somebody else.1:07Other servers.1:08You, yeah, you were using somebody else's Wi-Fi.1:12Not uncommon.1:14Not legal.1:15For internet users.1:17No, no, no. Yeah, so this person probably caught on and turned it off.1:22But it's not- no, it was the li- it was a Linksys in my neighborhood.1:27Oh.1:27Yes, they probably did.1:28Oh, Jennifer, it was a neighbor's wireless internet. They didn't- they set it up, and they didn't realize that they were broadcasting it publicly.1:38Okay, well, for over a year and a half.1:39They dis- well, they- somebody- they caught on, or they moved, or they turned it off, or they renamed it.1:45You know, what I tell everybody who has wireless internet, uh, wireless access point is turn on something called WPA2 encryption.1:54You will require a password, then your neighbors will not see you, if you were a bad guy, you could have gotten on their network and and you have access to all their systems.2:02And2:02But I don't, I just2:04But but there might be other people in the neighborhood who were.2:06So, in fact, you were at great risk as well using this linksys.2:10Doesn't my firewall and my2:12No, no, no, no. You, you are on an unprotected network.2:17You are in the doing the most dangerous thing you could do. Yeah.2:21I take that risk. I do all my banking. I'm taking that.2:23You take that risk because you're cheap, Jennifer. You're going to have to buy internet access.2:28This is true.2:30I'm sorry, and the, and buying the wireless extender is not the solution.2:33You need to get, go to an internet service provider and say, I want to buy internet access and hook up your own Wi-Fi.2:40It'll work great.2:42Yeah, well, they should bring that cost down.2:4514.95 from DSL Extreme a month, but I mean, you know, that's, that's like somebody saying, yeah, I, uh, I steal, uh, from the grocery store because food is so expensive.2:57It's still stealing. So you, you're, you're borrowing, look, I've done this from time to time.3:01You need a quick hit on your email, and you're driving around, there's open access point.3:05They're all named Linksys. When you see an access point named Linksys, it's kind of usually means the person who set it up was kind of clueless and just plugged it in and- and- and went.3:14They didn't change the name, didn't do anything. It could also be, though, Jennifer, it really could be3:22somebody, uh, malicious setting up a Wi-Fi access point and watching what you're doing.3:28Now, your banking's safe because it's encrypted, but maybe, uh, here, I'll give you an example.3:34This happens all the time. Uh, you get your email from, you know, Hotmail or Google or whatever, and now the good news is Google's changed their system so you cannot get it, uh, unencrypted,3:46but many other systems, and Google in the early days allowed you to send your login and password through the air unencrypted, which means that anybody else on that Linksys router, not just the guy who set it up,3:58but anybody else in your neighborhood on that router, could see your email password floating through, catch it, and now they've got access to your email.4:08In fact, first thing I would do right now is change all of your unencrypted passwords, you know, if you're, if you've done anything without encryption, you want to change it because those have all been sent through the airwaves publicly for the last year and a half.4:25So now, if I have access to your email, I can do all sorts of things.4:30For instance, I can, uh, go to your bank and say, oh yeah, I'm changing, uh, I'm changing my, uh, password, and, uh, they'll say, well, we have to confirm this through your email, right?4:39Uh-oh.4:42They can capture your email, they can, they can do anything.4:44They can watch what you're doing, they can get other passwords, they can get your logins.4:47You could be totally compromised, and if the person is clever and, uh, wants to maintain the connection, will not ever do anything that would let you know.4:56They just sit there and smile. So it's dangerous for you to use it.5:00It's technically illegal. It's wire fraud. You know, I mean, people have been arrested for it.5:06I, I don't think it's, you know, it's, it's certainly, it's wrong, right?5:09Because you're using a, somebody else's resource. They paid for it.5:13You're borrowing it. Now you might say, well, they didn't block me.5:18They're not required to block you. But, and what probably happened is that they did.5:24They, they wised up, somebody told them, or they moved. You don't even know who it is.5:27Maybe they moved. Maybe it broke.5:32Nowadays, everybody, we, there's all these things floating through the air, and, you know, you can grab them.5:35It's not safe to do it. I would recommend just, you know, DSL Extreme, one of our sponsors, is 14 dollars 95 cents a month.5:41It's pretty cheap.5:43You already spent more than that on the Wi-Fi extender. Wi-Fi extender will not help you, uh, if they went away or locked it down.5:52Uh, thank your neighbor. Here's what I do. When I see an open access.
