To ask if you know this reason why strangers may be hanging about outside your home?

[ATadShocked]

NC as I have spoken to people about this IRL.

I didn't know until very recently that our home broadband hub in our hallway is also being used as a public wi-fi hotspot by other passing BT/EE customers - did you?!

If, like me, you didn't know that and have noticed strangers hanging about outside your home with their phones then this may be the reason. I had assumed all the hotspots were in businesses or via masts, so I was a bit perturbed when I found out by accident that our hub was a hotspot. I would have liked to have been asked first. You can opt out, but only if you don't want to use other BT/EE hotspots yourself.

YABU: Yes, I knew my hub was also a public wi-fi hotspot and I don't mind

YANBU: No, I didn't know and I don't like the idea or I should at least have been asked to opt in

Why do people think it’s a problem?

like pp said free Wi-Fi is everywhere, so why people would choose to hang out outside someone else’s house for a hotspot instead of mcD’s or a bus station etc seems a bit weird.

it’s been around for years and as far as I’m aware having a BT router doesn’t lead to crowds outside people’s houses. Especially when nearly everyone has 4g/5g so don’t need to wander the streets for Wi-Fi.

o/p how do you know strangers are hanging round your house for the Wi-Fi? Strangers hang around my home with their phones a lot but it’s not for the Wi-Fi, it’s because it’s on the corner of the main road so people wait for lifts/friends/buses/ubers etc.

yes, i was reading through and thinking 'just switch it off intermittently" - free WIFI that disappears without warning will disperse the loiterers

Thank you for posting this, I think it is the explanation for why my WiFi seems to be on the fritz and I keep getting logged on to the EE network which is rubbish.

I didn’t know this existed. Just checked my list and yes there’s an unlocked BT/EE hotspot, think it must be ndn. I wonder if that’s why there’s a van parked in the road each weekday? I assume collects a child from the village school but turns up about an hour before school ends.

It's been this way forever. It doesn't affect your security or usage statistics and shouldn't affect the speed of your own connection. Having people hanging around outside your house to use it is very unusual. If they're annoying you, just turn the feature off.

Can you check if you have a password on your router because it sounds like you haven't

Surely no-one can get in if you have a password?

No to these and several other similar comments. It provides access for other BT customers. It's a separate connection to her personal one so nobody needs her password, or has access to her devices.

I very rarely need to use public wi-fi when I'm out and about, but when I do I always assume it's from a business or mast. I don't want to be using someone's home router, especially if they don't know and haven't consented to it.

As things stand, I think BT/EE - and other providers who might be doing it - have got their customers who do regularly need to use public wi-fi over a barrel. They have to agree to their hubs being hotspots even if they don't want to, because if they opt out they will lose the public wi-fi access.

Sure, if you opt out of your router being a hotspot, you shouldn't get to use other home routers as hotspots. But you should still get to use the business and mast ones.

BT have teamed up with EE now, so I think it's for BT and EE customers. The old BT wi-fi hotspots now seem to be being called EE wi-fi hotspots, I'm told with EE mainly managing them.

It would be interesting to know how many hotspots come from someone's home hub and how many come from businesses and masts.

Hmm I'm on EE and haven't been given access...

You consent by signing up, it's probably in the T&Cs

You'll also still be able to get access to "proper" public WiFi, those aren't the same as the out and about Home WiFi hot spots

@ColleenDonaghy Can you explain why it wouldn’t affect things like speed?

This might explain my years of broadband issues…

How can your personal WiFi be a public one if you've password protected it?

This . However I believe that if you switch your Wi-Fi off then you don’t get to use other people’s . I can’t see the issue as it’s not a security risk . I can honestly say I’ve never noticed anybody loitering outside my house .

@Andthereyougo, surely they're picking up kids from an after school club?!

@ATadShocked, we joined BT recently but honestly don't care if our hub is or isn't available to other customers. It doesn't effect our own usage and as others have pointed out, it'd be very bizarre for people to drive around specifically to access your internet because, if they can do that, then they are already paying for their own at home! Who would honestly drive to another location for free WiFi when they can search in the comfort of their own home, unless they're already in the neighbourhood, in which case being with BT would not change their presence anyway.

I personally think this is a making a mountain over a molehill.

I hadn't realised this, but me too! And yes a couple of strange people loitering outside my house which has made me feel anxious. Now I know why!

There are two networks set up on the router, your own personal one, and the public one. All traffic on your personal network is prioritised over the public one. Think about it like you are driving a car, and every time you go anywhere, the traffic light for you is always green, and everyone else has to wait on a red until you pass.

@ATadShocked BT (provider of fixed lines, and broadband) bought EE (provider of mobile services), so it's all still BT although eventually the whole EE network will be merged together in the way it was once when BT owned Cellnet who became O2.

They are re-branding as EE to disassociate the name BT from Openreach as that causes a lot of confusion because Openreach is owned by BT but has to be treated as a separate company for regulatory reasons. Since Openreach supply BT, the public always think that BT can "just get Openreach to do something, after all it's all the same company". Re-branding will help they think, as they'll be able to say "Openreach are BT, nothing to do with us, we are EE).

Mine isn't a hotspot but once my ex was standing outside my doorstep for ages (he didn't know I knew he was there, was dropping something off.)

After he'd gone I got all these footie notifications for the team he supports and suspected he'd been snooping on me - he knows the password because I've got nothing to hide.

Could he have snooped and how would that work if so?

If someone had your WiFi password, it would be very easy for them to be able to see any machine connected at the same time if they had the relevant knowledge.

It's actually quite easy to hack a WiFi network if someone had the right knowledge, which is why VPNs are popular as they protect from this.

Fortunately, having the right knowledge isn't that common.

I would definitely change your password though.

Who uses WiFi any more, honestly, it's so rare & erratic imo.

I hang outside random people's homes because I'm playing Pokemon Go. 😊

There's a link to an FAQ posted above by @Snowflake760 :

If other people connect via my Hub, does this slow down the internet for me?

Most people use only a very small percentage (2-10%) of the bandwidth they have available, so this is unlikely.

However, if you do need more of your bandwidth at any time, you'll always be prioritised over the BT Wi-fi user.

I don't know why this would cause you years of issues - unless you live next to a popular tourist attraction or something it would only be used sporadically. If your neighbours were able to use it, that would mean they were with BT themselves so they'd just be using their own connection. But as @lljkk says, most people just use mobile data when out and about so even if it used to cause issues I'd be surprised if it did now.

Are you sure it's your WiFi they're after?

At my old house groups of people would regularly hand out outside my house. One day I went out and asked what they were all doing, and it was Pokémon!

It's always been the case - I have BT wifi and often managed to grab a little bit of WiFi outside various houses. It's really useful as there is no 3 or 4G where I live. Or mobile signal.

On the road around the corner from us, it was bird watchers! They kept standing in the road to get the best view.

I had no idea this was even a thing, and I don't want people loitering in front of my house either.

It's always been like that.

You have to pay to access it unless you're already a BT customer though.

I can't vote as neither of your choices apply to me.

I knew about this and have known for years, I also thought it was well known.
I have used BT as a provider but not for years.
I opted out at the time, for this reason. Although my recollection was that I could just turn it off on my hub - mah e that has changed.

I would have thought that nowadays most people had plenty of data on their phones relatively cheaply and the use of it wouldn't be very much.