You are connecting to a neighbor's unsecured wireless network. Your neighbor is at fault for not securing their wireless network, and in some place it is considered illegal because you are using someone else's internet connection without their permission. Since it is unsecured, you can be in danger because anyone else that can access that network, may also have access to the files on your computer and can intercept anything that you send across the network (i.e social security numbers, credit card numbers, personal information, etc.). I would advise you to get your own router and set up your own secure wireless network.
Is there anyway possible I can figure out where this person is? It's obviously very close, because it says Excellent Connection, and also when I pull out of my driveway, and head down the road a little bit, I get disconnected.
I would really like to find this person and let him/her know somehow, that people are able to access his/her internet. I understand it's their fault, but they probably don't even know, just like i did.
I would feel kind of odd going door to door asking if they have a wireless network haha, maybe I'll just leave a note in a few people's mailboxes letting them know anyone can connect and use their Internet.
I would also like to know, if anyone could help, select the model/version of a decent wireless router for a Latitude D800. I would do this myself, but when I looked, there's things like IEEE 802.11b, and 64/128-bit WEP encryption. I have no clue what all this means, and I would hate to pay for something, that doesn't meet the requirements for my laptop.
could be 4 or 5 houses down from either direction or around the block. 300 ft radius around your house your picking someone up. a neighbor if its excellent connection than its probably house left or right from u. probably not in front of u.
You need a basic 802.11g router. The high speed models, pre-N, or anything fancy and not standarized, will only work at the higher speeds if the wireless networks cards are from the same manufacturer, and will not do anything to speed up your internet connection. The speed of the 802.11g is 54 Mbps, and although you would rareley acheive that speed, it is still higher than the 5Mbps or so that is provided by cable and dsl internet providers. 802.11g is backward compatible with 802,11b devices, so you would still be able to connect at free hotspots. I recommend models from Netgear, Linksys, or D-Link.
You need a basic 802.11g router. The high speed models, pre-N, or anything fancy and not standarized, will only work at the higher speeds if the wireless networks cards are from the same manufacturer, and will not do anything to speed up your internet connection. The speed of the 802.11g is 54 Mbps, and although you would rareley acheive that speed, it is still higher than the 5Mbps or so that is provided by cable and dsl internet providers. 802.11g is backward compatible with 802,11b devices, so you would still be able to connect at free hotspots. I recommend models from Netgear, Linksys, or D-Link.
Steve
Yup. Unfortunately, many times manufacturers will make small changes to their router designs without changing the model numbers, so even if some people have good results with a particular router model others may not.
For example, there are probably 6-10 different variants/revisions of the Linksys WRT54G (not even counting the GS Speedbooster variants). Some people swear by them, but from personal experience I know that some past revisions were total duds.
For this reason I suggest buying any 54 Mbps-capable router you find. Try to stay away from anything that advertises speeds greater than this as they do nonstandard things to get those speeds and won't give you those benefits when used with a normal 802.11g (54 Mbps) card.
Last but not least, due to the fact that router models can quickly go from "stud to dud" when a manufacturer releases a new hardware rev, buy from a store that has a good return policy.
helmecj01
2 Intern
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2.4K Posts
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August 21st, 2006 19:00
it send out a signal to the laptop os you can have a inernet with no wirele
volcano11
2 Intern
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28K Posts
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August 21st, 2006 20:00
You are connecting to a neighbor's unsecured wireless network. Your neighbor is at fault for not securing their wireless network, and in some place it is considered illegal because you are using someone else's internet connection without their permission. Since it is unsecured, you can be in danger because anyone else that can access that network, may also have access to the files on your computer and can intercept anything that you send across the network (i.e social security numbers, credit card numbers, personal information, etc.). I would advise you to get your own router and set up your own secure wireless network.
Steve
MattIsBogus
9 Posts
0
August 21st, 2006 21:00
Is there anyway possible I can figure out where this person is? It's obviously very close, because it says Excellent Connection, and also when I pull out of my driveway, and head down the road a little bit, I get disconnected.
I would really like to find this person and let him/her know somehow, that people are able to access his/her internet. I understand it's their fault, but they probably don't even know, just like i did.
Thank you again.
MattIsBogus
9 Posts
0
August 21st, 2006 21:00
I would also like to know, if anyone could help, select the model/version of a decent wireless router for a Latitude D800. I would do this myself, but when I looked, there's things like IEEE 802.11b, and 64/128-bit WEP encryption. I have no clue what all this means, and I would hate to pay for something, that doesn't meet the requirements for my laptop.
steven troise
774 Posts
0
August 21st, 2006 21:00
volcano11
2 Intern
•
28K Posts
0
August 21st, 2006 22:00
You need a basic 802.11g router. The high speed models, pre-N, or anything fancy and not standarized, will only work at the higher speeds if the wireless networks cards are from the same manufacturer, and will not do anything to speed up your internet connection. The speed of the 802.11g is 54 Mbps, and although you would rareley acheive that speed, it is still higher than the 5Mbps or so that is provided by cable and dsl internet providers. 802.11g is backward compatible with 802,11b devices, so you would still be able to connect at free hotspots. I recommend models from Netgear, Linksys, or D-Link.
Steve
Entropy42
529 Posts
0
August 22nd, 2006 13:00
Yup. Unfortunately, many times manufacturers will make small changes to their router designs without changing the model numbers, so even if some people have good results with a particular router model others may not.
For example, there are probably 6-10 different variants/revisions of the Linksys WRT54G (not even counting the GS Speedbooster variants). Some people swear by them, but from personal experience I know that some past revisions were total duds.
For this reason I suggest buying any 54 Mbps-capable router you find. Try to stay away from anything that advertises speeds greater than this as they do nonstandard things to get those speeds and won't give you those benefits when used with a normal 802.11g (54 Mbps) card.
Last but not least, due to the fact that router models can quickly go from "stud to dud" when a manufacturer releases a new hardware rev, buy from a store that has a good return policy.