Hop on My Bandwith
By Timothy Lee
Should we be worried about wireless “piggybacking?” Millions of homes now have wireless Internet networks, and many of them are not protected by passwords. “Piggybacking” occurs when someone — a next-door neighbor or a stranger parked across the street — finds an open network and logs on.
News reports tend to paint the practice as a growing problem. Reporters use words like “stealing,” “hacking” and “intrusion.” But despite the alarmist talk, the articles rarely explain what the problem is.
Maybe that’s because there is none. To the contrary, the increasing ubiquity of free wireless Internet access is something to celebrate.
But I’m biased: If “piggybacking” is a crime, I’m a serial offender. I moved to St. Louis last summer, and during my three days of apartment hunting, I “stole” Internet access on an hourly basis. After viewing an apartment, I’d log onto an open wireless network (there was usually one within a block or two), get directions to my next destination and check Craigslist for any new listings.
Indeed, I’ve found open wireless access points so convenient that I’ve chosen to reciprocate by leaving my home wireless network open to the world. So what’s the problem?
One problem, as telecom companies will be quick to point out, is that my unscrupulous neighbor might use my Internet connection permanently instead of paying for his own. They have a point: that borders on theft of service. I’d slap a password on my network if that was happening.
But there are also perfectly legitimate reasons to borrow access. For example, when someone first moves into a home, it may take several days to set up a broadband connection. It’s harmless — and extremely convenient — to log onto a neighbor’s network. Likewise, a neighboring network makes a convenient backup when one’s own connection goes down. Such casual uses don’t hurt residential broadband providers at all.
Security is another concern. Some are afraid that opening up their network will jeopardize their computers’ security. But the reality is that most of us have far more to fear from hackers on the Internet than from users parked across the street.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that many people leave their networks open from ignorance. Users should have the knowledge to make an informed choice about whether to share their connection, but they may lack the savvy to protect their networks with a password or even to realize that their networks are open at all. More user education is needed.
A big part of that job falls to the companies that make wireless networking devices. They’ve made improvements in the last five years, but they need to do more. In addition to making their software more user-friendly, vendors could also give users better ways to monitor who is logging into their network and how much bandwidth is being consumed. That way, you could easily check your neighbor’s usage and cut him off if he seems to be using your network as his primary Internet connection.
What’s definitely not needed is legislation. People already have the tools they need to control their networks; we just need to do a better job of teaching people how to use them. If Internet service providers object to piggybacking, they already have the option to sue their customers for violating their terms of service, but that’s between the provider and its customers. The piggybacker doesn’t know whether his host is breaking the provider’s terms of service.
Personally, I think sharing your connection is just being a good neighbor. Think of it as the 21st century equivalent of lending a cup of sugar.
Timothy B. Lee, a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, is a regular contributor to the Technology Liberation Front Web site.
