Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not share my wifi?

50 replies

newsecretidentity · 01/04/2014 16:12

So I was reading a thread on a similar subject this weekend, which reminded me to change my router's name and password. A few months ago we had a new neighbor move in next door and she asked if she could borrow the wifi password. I assumed she meant on a temporary basis until she could have her installed, and thought no more about it.

Recently we started having trouble with our wifi becoming slow or dropping out when DD's were watching shows on netflix. The thread this weekend reminded me that she COULD still be using it and that it could be putting us over our fair usage limit. So I duly changed the password.

Today she's stopped me outside to ask if there's a problem with the wifi. So apparently she hasn't gotten her own and has just been using mine.

I fibbed and told her I had switched to a dongle. AIBU to not share?

OP posts:
ReginaldBlinker · 01/04/2014 16:14

No, YANBU, and quite composed really. Am Shock at her courage to confront you about it!!

Crinkle77 · 01/04/2014 16:14

YANBU. She is a cheeky bitch.

BananaBumps · 01/04/2014 16:15

Well, did she also ask for an extension lead for your electricity?

Of course YANBU!! You could ask her for a contribution for the last few months.

TruffleOil · 01/04/2014 16:17

Cheeky mare.

I'd say, it's GREAT when you and your neighbor both have wifi so you can share as a backup to service interruptions - let me know when yours drops and I'll do the same.

gamerchick · 01/04/2014 16:18

piggy backers royally grind my gears. cheeky gits.

Titsalinabumsquash · 01/04/2014 16:18

In our old house we lived in a little square on a green behind a university, we would always get students asking to borrow our internet when they moved in at the beginning of term, they used to pay towards it occasionally or even if they couldn't they were alway pleasant and helpful and they always got their own within a few weeks of moving in.

If they were very polite I would let them and then ask them occasionally to carry something heavy out the car, On my way! the grass etc but we must have got a rep because we'd got one that 'shared' the password with another house full so we changed the wifi name to "YOU BLEW IT NUMBER 42" and promptly changed the password Grin

squoosh · 01/04/2014 16:23

Grin Grin

I'm in awe of your neighbour's brazen tightfistedness! Tell her to pay for her own bloody wifi. Whadda cheek!

One of my neighbours has called their wifi 'EAT SHIT AND BUY YOUR OWN WIFI'.

SpringBreak · 01/04/2014 16:25

cheeky cow. The other issue is that you have no idea what she's uploading / downloading and whether she is infringing copyright that will be traced to you.

expatinscotland · 01/04/2014 16:25

I wouldn't have fibbed, but I would also NEVER let anyone use my password, because if they use the net for criminal purposes, you could wind up in a great deal of trouble.

Kaekae · 01/04/2014 16:26

Cheeky! No, YANBU. I wouldn't have lied to her though, I would have told her straight!

Stinklebell · 01/04/2014 16:28

A few of my neighbours have changed their wifi names to stuff like "get your own wifi tightwads"

I wouldn't have the cheek.

I'm happy for people to have the wifi password while they're here - friends and family coming to stay for example, DD's friends bring their tablets for their Minecraft sessions, but it's a bit of a cheek to use it instead of getting your own even if I do admire her brazeness

Original poster
newsecretidentity · 01/04/2014 16:36

To be honest, It wouldn't have bothered me too much if our connection hadn't started to get really poor-- I'm assuming because she was taking up bandwidth. I feel mean for cutting her off, but at the same time I really do need the internet to work. And mumsnet, obviously.

I fibbed because I don't want a neighbor war... There's no where else to move around here!

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 01/04/2014 16:38

You feel mean? She could have landed you in jail, you know.

LIZS · 01/04/2014 16:42

She will know you fibbed as your router name will still show up as protected .

CSIJanner · 01/04/2014 16:42

Lets see - illegal downloads, child porn, streaming video chat... Nope - don't give it to her. And change your password to something alphanumeric with punctuation, after changing your user name to "cheekybintneedstobuyherown_wifi"

Original poster
newsecretidentity · 01/04/2014 16:43

Actually, that's a good point. I like to assume everybody is nice, but for all I know she could be up to no good.

She acted as though it was a perfectly natural thing to ask, I didn't know if that's something that's commonly done around here...

OP posts:
UncleT · 01/04/2014 16:47

YANBU. There's nothing normal about what she did. It is tight-fisted, risky and unfair.

Original poster
newsecretidentity · 01/04/2014 17:05

Oh, I changed the name too, so the original name doesn't show up anymore.

OP posts:
HowContraryMary · 01/04/2014 17:10

A few months ago we had a new neighbor move in next door and she asked if she could borrow the wifi password. I assumed she meant on a temporary basis until she could have her installed, and thought no more about it

Assume - makes an Ass out of U and Me, or in her case, just U Grin

She asked, you said yes and gave her the PW, you assumes it was temporary.

I'm failing to see what she did wrong, because you had to agree to it.

Original poster
newsecretidentity · 01/04/2014 17:14

She didn't really do anything wrong, in that she asked and I gave it to her. I suppose I should have specified a time frame, but it just didn't occur to me that she planned to piggyback on a permanent basis.

OP posts:
diddl · 01/04/2014 17:20

I'm stunned that anyone would say yes to this request!

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 01/04/2014 17:24

As am I,

I pay to use my internet, not anyone else.

And the cheek to ask you, if their was an issue with it.

Original poster
newsecretidentity · 01/04/2014 17:24

Maybe I'm naive. We live in a very rural area with poor mobile signal, so it's really difficult to get phone etc. set up when you first move in. When I first moved in here I had to drive 7 miles into the nearest town to get enough mobile signal to email, etc. So I figured letting her borrow the password would make it easier for her to get herself set up and she wouldn't have to go through what I did.

OP posts:
Contrarian78 · 01/04/2014 17:26

My parents' Wi-Fi was set up unlocked, and it soon became apparent that the world and their wife were using it. My parents weren't bothered until I pointed out that the kindly old scout master up the road always seemed to have a sucession of girlfriends with young kids could be looking at anything, and that they would struggle to maintain such a relaxed attitude when the boys from Operation Yewtree came and kicked the door off it's hinges.

I locked the wi-fi down for them, but not before changing the name to 'METPOLICESURVEILLLENCEVAN NO7'

NoodleOodle · 01/04/2014 17:26

My partner lives in a house that's split into flats, and intends to ask if he can share the wifi with someone else, and split the bill. I think that's fair enough, but not to just use your wifi for free, for ever, and heavily enough that it impacts on your connection. She is a cheeky cow! There is always the risk that she could have been doing something illegal with the wifi but, it wouldn't be the first thing I'd assume of an ordinary neighbour.

If she asks again, perhaps tell her that you came to the end of a contract, which you didn't renew because of the cost, and could she give you the password to her wifi when she sets it up asap, as a return of the favour you did for her?

Swipe left for the next trending thread