Talk to Your Neighbors About Their Open Wireless Access Point

I've run into this several times; We've done all we can to secure our Wireless Access Point, we've added WEP or WPA, setup MAC address restrictions, etc., only to be circumvented by the fact that our neighbor's Access Point is wide open.  There are a couple of reasons for this:

• Some folks don't care. 
• They like wide open access, it\'s easy and they want to offer the world their internet connection. 
• They don't know how to secure it. 
• I'm sure that this is the most common problem. 
• It's just too confusing, difficult, etc..
• They have other intentions. 

A little known fact is that once a computer accesses the inside of someone's network, it becomes vulnerable to whatever is happening on that network. The traffic from all machines can be captured, operating system vulnerabilities can be exploited, and your kids (or you) can become targeted by them.  The most significant problem is that your kids are not using the infrastructure you should be providing.  You've secured yours, you've locked it down, and you control it.  - They are basically "sneaking" out the window at night - using a window that someone else provided.

What should you do?

• You should find your neighbors wireless access points yourself, and talk to them about the open ones you've found.  If you have a hard time figuring out who they are, you can detect it yourself with a number of tools. One in particular is NetStumbler which can be used to scan your immediate area. With NetStumbler, you can get a signal strength meter - the stronger the signal, the closer you are.  Just use it to find the open access points..  
• Look at your kids computers, and the wireless preferences, most of the time you'll see profiles for wireless points they've accessed.  If some of these match up with the ones you found in the neighborhood, it's time for a conversation.  
• Remind your kids to use the internet connection you've provided. If you suspect that they are still using your neighbors connection; speak with your neighbor and let them know that their connection is being used and by whom. You probably would want to highly encourage them to secure the point.  

It pays to know what's going on in you neighborhood. Who's providing points of interest for your kids.  It's kind of an electronic neighborhood watch