Don White wrote in news:Ll20h.10632$cz.164981
@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca:

Not sure if it would be worthwhile.


ER, ah, how can anything that is FREE be "not worthwhile"??....unless it's
painful, somehow...

He's trying to get YOU on Skype so HE can call YOU without having to incur
SkypeOut charges from there to NB. Skype-to-Skype is always FREE!

So, to recap:
Softwa FREE
Skype-to-Skype calls: FREE

Is there a downside you can see I don't?....(c;



--
-- (shameless tagline) --
If you're sending someone some Styrofoam,
what do you pack it in?

Larry wrote:
Don White wrote in news:Ll20h.10632$cz.164981
@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca:


Not sure if it would be worthwhile.



ER, ah, how can anything that is FREE be "not worthwhile"??....unless it's
painful, somehow...

He's trying to get YOU on Skype so HE can call YOU without having to incur
SkypeOut charges from there to NB. Skype-to-Skype is always FREE!

So, to recap:
Softwa FREE
Skype-to-Skype calls: FREE

Is there a downside you can see I don't?....(c;



Yes, There is a downside that you don't see. Down island the cost to
connect at the internet cafe's is sometimes $6.00 for the first 10
minutes and $1.00/min after that.
krj

"krj" wrote

Yes, There is a downside that you don't see. Down island the cost to
connect at the internet cafe's is sometimes $6.00 for the first 10 minutes
and $1.00/min after that.
krj

Depends on where you are and your "web ethics". ;-) A number of restaurants
and bars in the BVI, SXM and StV&G have found that free wifi is a big
drawing card. Most offer free wifi or the first half hour free if you order
something. Many marinas offer free wifi with slip rent and as a last resort
several operations offer multiple hotspots aimed out into anchorages for $50
to $60/week. BVIWifi is really cool. They run ten 500mw hotspots scattered
around the BVI. With a decent antenna and a 200mw adapter you can connect
from up to a couple of miles away.

There is also a growing number of unsecured APs sprouting up all over the
islands. Last week in a 2 mile drive along Ridge Road in Tortola my Net
Stumbler discovered over 50 unsecured APs with usable signal. Seems like
every villa is installing an access point and just leaving them up even when
the place is vacant. Not saying you should constantly piggyback on an AP
uninvited but if you really need to make a call it is possible almost
anywhere.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
news
There is also a growing number of unsecured APs sprouting up all over
the islands. Last week in a 2 mile drive along Ridge Road in Tortola
my Net Stumbler discovered over 50 unsecured APs with usable signal.
Seems like every villa is installing an access point and just leaving
them up even when the place is vacant. Not saying you should
constantly piggyback on an AP uninvited but if you really need to make
a call it is possible almost anywhere.



While I'm very proud of all of you who feel guilty in some way of using
someone else's wifi, I don't think you need be. If they don't want you
to use it, they simply WEP protect it, which is like locking your house
to keep the public from using your bathroom. The serious hacker is going
to use your WEP-protected wifi, anyway, and that's where to draw the
line.

My wifi is open to the public. Many of the boys in the barracks at CAFB
are using my bandwidth because I put the wifi hotspot 50' up the tree
outside in an inverted plastic bucket to increase range with a high-
powered hotspot and high gain, space diversity antennas. They, in turn,
have built Pringle's can 2400 Mhz antennas and stuck them on the roof.
If I need my bandwidth I simply unplug that open router from the main
router while I need it. If there's an attack, and there has been, I
leave it offline for a week or two until the attacker gives up.

Anyone leaving an open wifi port is, as far as I know, leaving his wifi
as an open hotspot, a public service to the rest of us. You should leave
yours open so anyone needing bandwidth can get it within a half block of
your house, unless it becomes a bandwidth hog from someone abusing your
good deed. If everyone did this, everyone with wifi would benefit as
there would be so much bandwidth across a city there would be no need of
companies selling bandwidth, sucking the blood of all of us. How stupid
it is we all live like hermits protecting our turf with sticks.

As a side benefit of the open wifi hotspot, government bureaucrats hell
bent on tracking every byte from you to anywhere now have a problem.
"Your honor, a direct connection from this person's IP address to
timbucktoo.com was noted by our government spy computers many times over
the last 12 months."....the prosecuting bureaucrat explains with that
goddamned smirk on his face. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the JURY, Mr.
Soandso has, as a public service, an open wifi hotspot accessable by
anyone who is within radio range of his home. It could have been anyone
connecting to his free hotspot that connected his IP to timbucktoo.com,
so what the government bureaucrats have recorded in their snooping means
nothing." Would you convict him? Of course not...which is why
government snoopers are terrified of open wifi hotspots rendering their
snooping useless to prosecute.....(c; You become an internet provider,
which puts you under the same protection laws as Comcast and Bell$outh,
unresponsible for what flows through your system you're providing free.

It's why the FCC doesn't allow you to have a 25 watt wifi router with a 5
mile range.....(c; It's about "control", same as always.

Using anyone's open wifi hotspot is NOT a sin-of-the-flesh.....Help
yourself. Use mine SSID W4CSC



--
-- (shameless tagline) --
If you're sending someone some Styrofoam,
what do you pack it in?

Larry wrote:
....

While I'm very proud of all of you who feel guilty in some way of using
someone else's wifi, I don't think you need be. If they don't want you
to use it, they simply WEP protect it, which is like locking your house
to keep the public from using your bathroom.

So, whenever you need to go to the bathroom, you just try a nearby
house to see if its unlocked? Why don't you just add an outhouse?

On the WiFi issue, I've been skeptical in the past, but my migrant
liveaboard friends said that on their current trip south (from Nova
Scotia, now somewhere around NJ) they've had almost continuous WiFi
connections using an antenna they hoist up. These are folks who would
typically anchor out, away from the crowds. They said their biggest
problem is too many signals, all with the default SSID's.

One odd problem they have is they can't get two computers to share one
feed. They ended up getting a second antenna.

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:41:04 -0400, Jeff wrote:

Wifi access on the water continues to improve very rapidly. Amost all
major marinas and harbors, even in the Bahamas, have some sort of wifi
service, some free, some not. Glenn Ashmore also reports good wifi
availability in the BVI and USVI.

One odd problem they have is they can't get two computers to share one
feed. They ended up getting a second antenna.

It can be done, either with a router, or Windows Internet Connection
Sharing (ICS). It may take some minor networking proficiency. There
are sometimes IP conflicts between the wifi client and the router if
they both use the same defaults. It's usually easy enough to change
the settings once you recognize the problem.

Jeff wrote in news:PPydne-q9vd_89_YnZ2dnUVZ_v-
:

So, whenever you need to go to the bathroom, you just try a nearby
house to see if its unlocked? Why don't you just add an outhouse?



Your being a little absurd, of course.....



--
-- (shameless tagline) --
If you're sending someone some Styrofoam,
what do you pack it in?

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:19:25 -0400, Larry wrote:

While I'm very proud of all of you who feel guilty in some way of using
someone else's wifi, I don't think you need be.

a net philanthropist are you?

If they don't want you to
use it, they simply WEP protect it,

wrong, they would use WPA or better WPA2

which is like locking your house to
keep the public from using your bathroom.

using WEP to "protect" your AP would be more like just shutting the door
to the house.

The serious hacker is going
to use your WEP-protected wifi, anyway, and that's where to draw the
line.

serious?... any 15 year old with a clue could be piggybacking his way to
Runescape or Pornworld via your "WEP-protected wifi" in very short order
indeed... yeah, the wifi that _you_ pay for, not him.

"mr.b" wrote in news
serious?... any 15 year old with a clue could be piggybacking his way to
Runescape or Pornworld via your "WEP-protected wifi" in very short order
indeed... yeah, the wifi that _you_ pay for, not him.



Poor paranoid baby! I've only had two cases of abuse on my wifi hotspot.
Taking the wifi hotspot down for a week, then putting it back up, seemed to
stop it. If it were a problem, I would simply cease its access. It's
not....

Does that make you feel better....less totally negative??



--
-- (shameless tagline) --
If you're sending someone some Styrofoam,
what do you pack it in?

On Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:37:56 -0400, Larry wrote:

"mr.b" wrote in news
serious?... any 15 year old with a clue could be piggybacking his way to
Runescape or Pornworld via your "WEP-protected wifi" in very short order
indeed... yeah, the wifi that _you_ pay for, not him.



Poor paranoid baby! I've only had two cases of abuse on my wifi hotspot.
Taking the wifi hotspot down for a week, then putting it back up, seemed
to stop it. If it were a problem, I would simply cease its access. It's
not....

Does that make you feel better....less totally negative??

I suppose you could characterise my criticism of your poor advice as
negative. I think others might find it helpful. Either way, help us out
by making up your mind. First you say freeloading on your wifi is fine
and everyone is welcome to it, then you say it's been abused and you've
had to shut your router off for a week at a time -and that apparently is
no problem for you-?!? Well, what is it?