Have you ever used a neighbours broadband connection without asking them??????

[RTKangaMummy]

Cos I am at the moment

It is weak but it is working

yes lots of times

if they don't secure them it's tough tits

think you should ask as you'll slow them down

Huh how did you manage that ??

How??!

unsecured wireless network

I'm of the "if you leave it unsecured then it's your lookout" school of thought :) Can't use someone else's connection here, but if I go away and have my laptop I always give it a try on the offchance

oh yes, we're getting a wireless one and we're definitely getting it secured!! I know a tracher friend who can't get broadband in her classroom but a house on the road near the school has an unsecured one!!!

sorry, teacher!!

We usually only have dial up down here in sussex

But had a friend round this afternoon and tried internet and it worked

I do too. Agree with GeorginaA!

OK but how do you pinch it ??

And how do you know if it is being pinched ??

It is slow though

BUT it is free

In herts our broadband is secured, so no one can access ours

go to refresh network and click and it comes up and click connect

BUT OTHERS MAY BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE TYPING

To see if there's wireless near you - your computer needs to have a wireless card. The networky gizmo then just looks up all the local networks for you. If it's unsecured there won't be a padlock by it and you can see if you can connect.

To find out if it's being pinched, you go to your router and look at the list of who's connected to your router.

Eh? This is all incomprehensible to me. How can you use a neighbour's broadband connection (or they yours)?

naughty! naughty!

How d'you get to your router?

Incidentally, I probably wouldn't use a neighbours all the time (I'd pay for my own)... but the occasional night away from home or babysitting or whatever I'd try it. Morally grey

Caligula: it's if they have a wireless network set up and stupidly didn't set a password on it, you can piggyback on their network.

Depends on the router I think. We have an internal web address we go to, to access all the settings.

So, have I got this right...someone else is paying for you to use the pc? I think that's bloody cheeky.

Nope - they're paying for broadband anyway, and unless you're downloading huge movies and music and stuff, they will not be out of pocket anymore than they would otherwise be.

As I say, I'd pop on it to browse mumsnet or check my mail while babysitting (if I could get a connection).

In the States I understand that quite a few public areas (such as libraries?) have free open wireless connection? I think?

It's out of order to use huge bandwidth intensive stuff on someone's connection imo...

So, if they had rented a DVD for a night, would you mind them watching it through your window? After all, you had already paid for it