Sharing Wireless Connections - A legal perspective

A legal view in layman's terms The recent arrest of a Florida man on charges of unauthorized use of a wireless network could set legal ground rules for open Wi-Fi access.

A man sitting in a Chevy Blazer in a residential neighborhood reportedly was poking around nearby wireless networks in violation of computer crime laws, according to local police.

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This appears to be the first arrest in which the sole offense was allegedly accessing a wireless network without prior authorization, and it's already being viewed as a probable test case. CNET News.com interviewed legal scholars to ask what rules apply to Wi-Fi (also called 802.1x) hot spots.

Is it legal to use someone's Wi-Fi connection to browse the Web if they haven't put a password on it?
Nobody really knows. "It's a totally open question in the law," says Neal Katyal, a professor of criminal law at Georgetown University. "There are arguments on both sides."

That doesn't make much sense. Is there a specific law that regulates Wi-Fi access?
Sort of. The primary law is the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

You can read it for yourself, but the important part (check out paragraph (a)(2)) covers anyone who "intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access." Nobody knows exactly what that means in terms of wireless connections. The law was written in 1986 to punish computer hacking--and nobody contemplated 802.1x wireless links back then.

What do prosecutors think?
We asked the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday. A department representative who did not want to be quoted by name said, essentially, that it depends on the details of each case.

The representative said in an e-mail exchange: "Whether access is considered authorized can be determined in part by the precise circumstances of access, just as it would be in the physical world. The prosecutor and jury would look at how the access was accomplished and what was done with the access before definitively determining that it was unauthorized." In other words, the representative said, someone sitting in a company's parking lot at 3 a.m. for the sole purpose of network connectivity might be viewed as a lawbreaker.

Will we ever get a straight answer?
Yes, but expect it to take a while. "This is a problem with the way the legal system works," says Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who has written a detailed article on unauthorized network access. "Nobody knows how an ambiguous law works until a prosecution is brought and a court decides."

Alternatively, Congress could rewrite the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to clear things up, but nobody expects this to happen anytime soon.

How about sharing? Is it legal for me to share my cable modem or DSL connection with my neighbors?
In many cases the answer is no. It depends on the wording of your contract with your broadband provider. Many don't want you to share. As far back as 2002, Time Warner Cable was sending warnings to customers with open Wi-Fi access points, and a year later it sued an apartment complex on charges of illicit sharing. Also, AT&T Broadband has acknowledged monitoring customers for "inordinately high" usage.

"Our terms of service for Verizon Online DSL customers do prohibit them from sharing their connection," says Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson. "The service is meant for use in one location, which would be their home."


What happens if someone does something unsavory with my Wi-Fi connection? Can I get in trouble?
This is another area of ambiguity. "I don't think you would ever be held vicariously liable for unwittingly allowing someone to use your network even if they're trafficking in child pornography. You're just considered a victim in that case," says Christian Genetski, an information security lawyer at Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal. "It'd be different if you set up your own open relay server and looked the other way while spammers sent billions of messages through your open relay, and you were put on notice and did nothing to stop it."

Still, one reason to tighten up your Wi-Fi security is that an open wireless connection can be used for mischief. In September, a California man pleaded guilty to spamming people through open Wi-Fi hot spots.

Are state laws about unauthorized access different?
Yes, but often not in an important way. Genetski says that "as a general rule, most states model their computer crime laws after (the federal law)."

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I got few problems. I can't get any signal from my router, here is my setup:

I have SBC dsl, Netgear 614 G router, & 2 AirLink 101 G pci cards in two room. Each of these desktops approximately 75 feet from the router. Room1 is seperated by brick wall & Room2 is not.

Only one time in Room1 I got some signal for about 5 minutes then it died. Totally no signal in both room. It is difficult to wire the two rooms.

How can I get the signal? Is my router or wirless pci card could be bad? Will a signal booster be help? Please help, someone who had similar problem.

Here are some guides that be useful to you.

Connecting the PS2 to PC using HD Loader (slimline version)

PS2 networking tutorial

Part two, of above tutorial

Credit to SeriusBlack

I have verizon with a westell 2200 and a linksys router wrt54g trying to setup a wireless network between pc (wired) and 2 wireless laptops, all can see the router and each other but cannot access webpages through internet explorer, everything was setup according to instructions any help would be appreciated thanks

1. See the post in this thread that talks about Special issues for Westell and Linksys
2. If that link doesn't solve your problem, be sure to post back with specifically which instructions you've followed


It may be helpful for you to start a new thread, as that will make your issue more visible

kahoots - please go to the first post in this thread and look for the link that says My wireless nework doesn't reach far enough

See if that helps. You might also want to follow the Basic Education links to some of the vendor network configuration wizards, but there may not be much information there, as you are pursuing a solution that pushes the technology

When you post back, it would be best if you create a new thread in this (Computer) forum, as the way this forum tends to operate is that threads like this are primarily used for reference and do not tend to be monitored for posting activity.

So, you'll get the fastest "service" by creating your own thread. (We tend to operate a little bit differently, and a lot politer than other FW forums)

Hope this helps

Is this the first time logging into your router? if it is read your handbook. It tells you the user name and password.

mrbthree said:Hi, when I go to 192.168.1.1, it will not recognize my user ID and password. Any thoughts? Thanks, mrbthree