COMMENTARY

Wireless Internet there for the taking

By EYDER PERALTA

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

How A Wireless Network Works

In simple terms, you connect your typical land-based connection (cable modem or DSL) to a wireless router, which transforms the signal into radio waves.

Howstuffworks.com makes an easy analogy to a walkie-talkie. You speak into it. It transforms your voice into radio waves, and another walkie-talkie receives those waves and turns them into sound, much the same way a wireless card would transform the waves from a router to zeros and ones, which your computer turns into text and pictures and audio and all sorts of other stuff.

• The problem: As with radio, the signal is everywhere, or in most cases with a wireless router, it`s within a 200-foot radius. That means anyone with a receiver (in TV terms, an antenna; in computer terms, a wireless card) can access your signal, and thus your Internet service. And if you`ve opened up your computer by having shared folders and files, they also can have access to those.

• What`s an SSID ? When you search for available wireless networks on your computer, it`ll bring up a list of network names. Some might say, ``Matts Internet,`` or some others will say ``Linksys`` or ``DLink,`` which are the default names identifying the manufacturer. These names are transmitted by the wireless router. You can turn off SSID transmission; like that it doesn`t show up on people`s computers.

• What`s WEP encryption? It`s like speaking in code. Your wireless router sends out encrypted waves, and your computer has a set of instructions to decode them. If someone wants to decode them, they would have to work hard to find the code.

• What`s a MAC address? Each wireless card has a numerical name. Each is singular. So you can give your router a list of numerical names identifying those you wouldn`t mind accessing your network. Think of it as a digital bouncer.

I was angry. It was a deep, fuming anger, because the lights on my cable modem wouldn`t stop flashing. Weeks before, I had gone downstairs to my neighbor`s and suggested we share an Internet connection. I had the wireless router; she had a wireless card; and if we worked a deal, we could split the bill and everyone would be happy.

She looked at me and confidently said, ``Nah. I don`t even use the Internet.``

So I stared at the blinking lights, lights that flashed only when her car was in the driveway. The gall. The insolence.

I`ve never been a thief. Once in the third grade I came close. I pocketed a stapler at the supermarket. I had lost one a classmate had lent me and was looking to replace it. I took a stapler out of its packaging, placed it in my pocket and paced past the deli, past the bakery, past the school supply aisle. All the while thinking that if I got caught, my parents would ship me off to seminary school.

Or worse — this could be the start of a career fueled by the adrenaline rush of thievery.

Whether it was a lack of bravery or a pang of morality, I couldn`t go through with it.

Many months after I found my neighbor with her hands in my Internet cookie jar, I found myself in a precarious situation. I was in a new apartment with a static-filled TV and disconnected from the world. That was until I found that in my bedroom I got a pretty decent signal from a neighbor`s wireless router.

I thought about my previous neighbor. I thought about my anger. I rationalized that what I was angry about is that the neighbor had lied to me. And I theorized that if my new neighbor hadn`t taken the time to protect his Internet connection, it was an open invitation to use it.

What`s the harm, I thought?

The Federal Communications Commission says there are no laws against accessing someone`s open wireless Internet connection. However, the cable company looks down on sharing.

I used it. I borrowed it. I shared it.

It hardly could be considered stealing.

``You could argue that if you are not password-protected, you are implicitly giving people permission to do it,`` said Alastair Norcross, a professor of ethics at Rice University.

``The problem with that is that I suspect most people don`t explicitly think about it. If you explicitly decide that you`re not password-protecting your connection, then fine. But, as with all new technology, most people who use them, myself included, don`t understand it all. So you can`t just assume that because someone doesn`t put a password protection, they`re happy with you using (their connection).``

Lance Ulanoff, executive editor of PC magazine, said, ``Is it wrong? No. I think the neighbor leaving it open is foolish.``

``(It`s) kind of a tricky issue,`` Norcross admitted. ``I would say if you wanted to be on the right side of the ethics of the matter, I would imagine that what one ought to do is ask your neighbor.

``I have a wireless Internet service in my house, and quite frankly I wouldn`t mind if my neighbor were to take advantage of it.``

Strange thing is that WiFi has become so incredibly popular that it could be hard to find the person each connection belongs to.

In a little experiment, I turned on my computer in the middle of downtown Houston and came up with a list of 22 wireless access points.

In my girlfriend`s house in Fort Worth, there were three wireless Internet connections. In my apartment here, there are three also — two of which are completely open.

``It`s become a bit of an epidemic,`` Ulanoff said. ``The wireless technology has gone much faster than the security. And it was so easy to set up and use, people think, `Oh, (nothing can) happen to me.` ``

Ulanoff recently noticed that his neighbor had gotten a wireless router. And it appeared on his computer with a simple default name.

``People buy routers and they don`t change anything,`` he said, adding that leaving the connection open is dangerous.

``While you may have anti-virus software, your neighbor, who is also accessing, doesn`t. They pose a risk. They can also view illicit material``— illegal stuff like kiddie porn. And the IP address the authorities use to track the wrongdoer down will lead back to the router`s owner.

The problem is an easy fix, Ulanoff explained. First, you should block people by MAC (media access control) address. Each computer or wireless card has a specific number, and your wireless router is equipped to only allow access to the machines listed.

You also can encrypt the signal by using WEP encryption.

And, finally, you also should change the user name and password on the router. And turn off the SSID transmission, which would keep most users from even knowing you have a wireless router.

It wasn`t a week before I got my own Internet connection. Then I couldn`t decide whether to turn my security into high gear.

If I did secure my connection, would that make me a hypocrite? Would I be like those Napster users who would download all day but would never share one file?

If I didn`t protect it, my computer could face Armageddon or I could be accused of viewing things that would make even Michael Jackson cringe.

Then again, if I left it open, perhaps it would help a neighbor relieve the boredom while his connection gets set up or it would in some way satiate my socialist tendencies.

I don`t know. Maybe my first step should be to go over to the neighbor`s with a batch of fresh-baked cookies and confess that I`ve taken advantage of his Internet connection and offer the antidote for keeping people from doing it again.