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> Grab yourself a 5-mile wifi- antenna to pick up wifi from coffee shops nearby. This sounds incredibly illegal.
by nightcracker 12y ago
> Grab yourself a 5-mile wifi- antenna to pick up wifi from coffee shops nearby.
This sounds incredibly illegal.
- Beached 12y ago:)
- rtpg 12y agoBeyond illegal, it's an abuse of trust. Very much "this is why we can't have nice things" behaviour. I hope anybody doing this only uses it outside of business hours or something to not be a total jerk.
- gojomo 12y ago> …illegal… Barring access controls (like secured-wifi or a 'captive-portal' requiring authentication), I doubt this is illegal, at least in the US. Lots of people and businesses leave their wifi open specifically to share with anyone within range. The few pennies of marginal cost are outweighed by the desire to be generous, or by actual goodwill earned from neighbors and passers-by. And there may be no marginal cost at all! On typical unmetered broadband-plans, until the link is saturated, bandwidth is a "marginally-free" resource that expires worthless every second if it's not used. So it should be used! An extra person hopping on is (until saturation) as close to a "free lunch" as you'll find in economics. It's the sort of ultra-efficient practice that law and culture should encourage, not stigmatize.
- icedchai 12y agoIt also probably won't work unless you can figure out how to get a similar antenna on the other end.
- webnrrd2k 12y agoI'm sure it's a problem if you don't ask, but one could always ask, or maybe even offer to pay for the access.