Why do my neighbors secure their wifi? ?

Question

it would be nice of them to share

:] i just dont understand

please explain.

Answer 1

Why do people lock their houses?  It would be nice of them to share.  Pretty much the same reason - the concept of *private* property.

Answer 2

1. WiFi in a Hacker to English dictionary would say: WiFi - God. 2. While you pay half, they get half the speed except when your WiFi off. 3. Chows the internet speed.

Answer 3

lol I also use my neighbor's internet, but I mean its their internet, they pay for it and everything, so why should they share it. Besides, A recent article by time magazine stated that using somebody else's internet was technically stelaing and breaking the law... so... now you know.

Answer 4

Other people using your wi-fi means less bandwidth, i.e. slower (or no)  internet. Plus, others could use it for nefarious purposes (sending spam, threatening someone, stealing music, etc.).

Answer 5

probably feel like cause there paying for it, nobody should be able to use theirs for free.

Answer 6

First if they leave it open, they are sharing bandwidth that they pay for with people who are mooching off of them.  They will have slow downloads.

Also, security:  Anyone that hops on their network will have access to their computers (unless they have software firewalls in place)  Someone who knows what their doing may be able to comprimise their computers

Also traffic being sent on their wireless network can be "sniffed" or intercepted by anyone withing range with a laptop.  Passwords, emails and Instant messager conversations can all be snooped unless they encrypt their traffic

Answer 7

Why would your neighbours want to let you leech off of their internet service, which they are probably paying $40-$80 per month to receive?  Some internet providers have a usage cap, which means that your neighbours might end up paying extra fees each month for each extra GB over the limit that they use.  If they don't secure their wifi, anyone can use it, and all that traffic adds up fast.  Why would your neighbours want to foot the bill for Joe-Blow-down-the-street's movie downloading habit?  Also, securing their wifi helps prevent identity theft by crooks who hack their signal.

Answer 8

because they probably don't want other people to use it because they pay for it. and if it were used by someone else other than them, then that person could do something illegally/s***w the wifi up.

Answer 9

Its their wireless, how they choose to do with it are up to them, if you get on with them, ask them nicely, I share my wireless with all my neighbours like almost 12 people free, but I do run it off another firewall router so they cant hack back

Answer 10

Some people don't care if you use their wireless .. others do.

For me, I use my neighbors wireless at their insistence.  They told me it would be rediculous to pay for access when I can use their. So, we hit on a happy medium.  I pay for half their monthly bill.  After all, I "am" using it.

If you not just looking for "free" internet, approach them with the offer to pay a portion of their bill in exchange for use of their wireless.

Anything other than that ... forget it.  Get your own.

Answer 11

Securing It Does A Few Things:

1. Keeping People Like You Off Their Internet, Which The More People On A Connection The Slower It Can Get

2. Security, Can Better The Chances Of Stopping A Hacker,

Answer 12

To keep you and every other freeloader off of it.

They have no control over what you do on-line.

For instance:

You could be downloading music files with attached viruses or spyware, that they are not interested in getting too. Sites like Limewire are famous for that.