Originally Posted by gnarkill (Post 269844)

NEVERMIND!! GOD, simple questions get unsimple answers!!

Originally Posted by Baylink (Post 269841)

Ok. As someone who operates a corporate network, let me tell you how this would go.

My access points are routers, running DD-WRT. They're configured for WPA-PSK.

After banging on the network for however long that took, our hero here would finally get connected. And the router would note a new connection, and tell my network management system about it. The NMS would look at the MAC address listed in the packet, note that it doesn't recognize it, and send me an email about it, which my mail system would forward to my BlackBerry, annotated with the manufacturer name derived from the first 3 octets of the MAC.

So, here's this email saying "New unknown wifi connection from 'Nokia Danmark A/S': 00-00-00".

Gee? I wonder who (else) has an n800 in the building and knows the passcode I didn't give them?

Users tend to think about wifi access as "getting to the net". Network managers tend to think about it as "keeping unwanted people out of my fileservers".

Now, stipulated, your wifi in a corporate network shouldn't *be* inside your firewall; users should be required to VPN in to your corpnet even if it's your own wifi they're on... but most people still don't do it that way.

Originally Posted by sunnydips (Post 269869)

So network professionals might be able to track you down but what about those locked hotspots at coffee shops or airports? I highly doubt starbucks or mcdonalds has a network security guy in the back. Or do they train the baristas and burger flippers?! haha

Originally Posted by fragos (Post 269873)

Is a thief only a thief if caught? Your ethics escape me.

Originally Posted by Baylink (Post 270749)

There you go again.

"Theft" has a very specific legal meaning, and I have seen no case law that applies it even to the more clear cut case of music sharing, much less "use of a non-secured wifi connection and the Internet uplink behind it".