Gizmodo 
Enter your username and password.
Tip your editors:
tips@gizmodo.com
Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | Email | Twitter
Editor:
Jason Chen
Email | AIM | Twitter
Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editors:
Jesus Diaz
Email | AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
Email | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
Email | Twitter
Sean Fallon
Email | Twitter
Jack Loftus
Email | Twitter
John Herrman
Email | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Email
Chris Mascari
Email
Danny Allen
Email | Twitter
Rosa Golijan
Email | Twitter
Chris Jacob
Email
Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner
Interns:
Don Nguyen
Email
Kyle VanHemert
Email
Comment Intern:
Nick Ellenoff | Email
Comment Account Questions:
Comments@gizmodo.com
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/06/08
11/06/08
That said, I know I am out of touch, so I probably just need to stop typing now.
11/06/08
I blame my mom for that one
11/06/08
No, nevermind. Don't answer that. I'd rather not know..
11/06/08
11/06/08
you also misspelled "sniffs"
11/06/08
I follow directions well, but previous efforts with my cheapo Trendnet router have resulted in me just not purchasing things online when home.
11/06/08
Like they can't see I'm on Gizmodo all the time anyway.
11/06/08
11/06/08
"but then again... my porn collection is coveted. "
and likely prohibited!
11/06/08
I'm not running torrents. I'm not hogging bandwidth. I'm pulled over in my car trying to check my god damn email. And what do i see? 15 wifi networks, all locked down.
Now look, some people DO wardrive. It happens. Some people also attempt sexual relations with kangaroos. The bottom line is, 99.9% of people have no decent reason to lock their router down. I think the whole practice is something that's been propelled by the telecom industry via scare tactics involving vague threats of ebil 'hackers' - so that nobody shares their wifi, and 10 apartments within 20 feet of eachother all are forced to purchase their own, mostly unused, subscriptions.
It may be a wacky conspiracy theory, but when i want to get to the bottom of things that annoy me, i generally need look no further than who benefits from the annoyance.
11/06/08
11/06/08
11/06/08
2) its not about preventing you from surfing your porn on my network, its about keeping you from seeing ME pay my bills or accessing my bank account. On a open network all of that information is OPEN you can just sniff away and learn my account numbers, passwords, see who I am talking to etc.
It is beyond obvious Nut, you have no fucking clue why encryption exists.
11/06/08
11/06/08
I have decided to open up my network to everyone BUT nutbastard.
11/06/08
So, where exactly would you find said kangaroos? Sounds like you are the kind of guy that is in the know...
11/06/08
Australia, dumbass : )
@everyone else
yes, i know, you're paying for it, do what you will. I'm not implying what you're doing is wrong or selfish, I'm saying it annoys me from a practical (for me) standpoint.
11/06/08
I understand why encryption exists. It exists to conceal sensitive information.
If i want to snag your personal information, i'm going to dig through your (unencrypted) trash and look through your (unencrypted) window and break into your (unencrypted) house.
Like i said, yes people war drive. Yes people attempt to steal other peoples personal information. But it is rare. It's much easier to code a trojan than it is to hack wifi locally, which is why there really aren't a lot of people driving around hacking wifi and *hoping* that you decide to pay your bills at that moment. It's about as feasible of a plan for financial gain as playing the lottery. It's not something that happens often enough to justify this paranoid state of affairs.
11/06/08
11/06/08
I agree that those with personal networks are wise to encrypt. But those people are in the vast minority.
11/06/08
11/06/08
You said...
"On a open network all of that information is OPEN you can just sniff away and learn my account numbers, passwords, see who I am talking to etc."
Not true. E-commerce is safe over unencrypted lines. SSL takes care of that. Everything is encrypted between the browser and the server, and no one has cracked SSL. Unless, of course, you've found a bank that doesn't use SSL, in which case you should call the newspapers, 'cause there ain't no such thing.
Make sure you have a clue when you call someone else clueless.
11/06/08
Right, since SSL is a feature of the browser, any sensitive info sent using it is encrypted before it is broadcast.
WEP and WPA don't prevent that kind of sniffing anyways. Regardless of your encryption, you're still broadcasting coherent data.
The real issue would be if SSL was compromised. Other than that, the only thing to worry about is what, your neighbor finds you have a kangaroo porn fetish? BFD.
11/06/08
Using the bathroom would be an intrusion. I might take it up when you want to use it. Not so with wifi, someone leeching off it here and there isn't something anyone is likely to notice, and likely won't affect the primary subscriber's web experience.
11/06/08
oh and for the record, no need for the bathroom, i'll just piss in your carport thank you very much.
11/06/08
11/06/08
and have you ever heard of anyone getting screwed for the SINGLE reason that they didn't encrypt their router?
Beyond that, this cracking of WPA is only the first PUBLIC cracking of it - the kind of people who really do try to snag info out of routers probably had it beat a while ago.
11/06/08
I think of it as an excluseive club, you need to know it's there and your name needs to be on the list already or you're not getting in.
11/06/08
11/06/08
I equate this to being on a VIP list at a nightclub or something. You can show the guy as many fake ID's as you want (spoof as many different MAC's as you want) but none of them are going to match his VIP list and you ain't gonna get yo' party on.
11/06/08
Wireless is basically just not secure, and you need to either be "OK with that" or you need get some really long Ethernet cables.
11/06/08
11/06/08
11/06/08
@Thermopyle:
Question...what good is spoofing an address if they've got a MAC list? You would have to spoof your MAC to something specifically on their list...which you don't have do you? From how I understand it you can spoof your MAC to anything you want. That won't let you into their network though? It just means you that you try to get into their network with another, different, MAC that ALSO isn't on their list? Wouldn't you still be denied? I equate this to being on a VIP list at a nightclub or something. You can show the guy as many fake ID's as you want but none of them are going to match his VIP list and you ain't gonna get yo' party on.
Now if they were EXCLUDING your MAC specifically for some reason or another I could see this working, but they're not.
11/06/08
If they're smart enough to crack WPA + TKIP in a hurry, they're definitely smart enough to sniff packets and find a MAC address.
11/06/08
11/06/08
go Linksys and load up DD-WRT, you'll get FCC violating range in a snap.
11/06/08
11/06/08
11/06/08
11/06/08
11/06/08