Wi-fi piggybacking

The term piggybacking can sound relatively innocent and childlike although it may shock some users to hear that such behaviour is technically classed as unauthorised access to a computer network, which is even considered a felony in some American states. While not all instances and regions share the same rules around piggybacking, many have similar charges that can be brought against users who accidentally or deliberately connect in this way. Depending on the network accessed and the information exchanged, piggybacking can be either completely inconsequential or a punishable offence.

However, it remains relatively easy to commit by accident. Many laptops will connect to access points without their users being aware. This is especially likely if the access point has a strong signal. Chances are you're reading this article because you suspect someone is piggybacking or using your WiFi without your permission. When wireless squatters steal your WiFi, they eat up your bandwidth.

In extreme cases, they may even steal information off your computer or infect machines on your network with a virus. But fear not: It's easy to fight back. Let's start with a basic overview of managing a wireless network, which is the first step toward keeping your WiFi setup secure. Before you can detect if someone is ripping off your wireless internet connection, it's important to understand some basic computer networking lingo.

For more information on how to set up a wireless network, take a look at How WiFi Works. Now, let's look at a few of the areas in a wireless network that will give you a baseline for determining if your WiFi signal is being sapped unexpectedly.

A wireless network is comprised of a broadband internet connection from a DSL, cable or satellite modem. You attach the modem to the wireless router, which distributes the signal and creates a network. This is what's called a local area network LAN. This LAN is where you set up computer peripherals such as your desktop or laptop computer and printer. Your router will have what's called a dynamic host client protocol DHCP table. In essence, your DHCP table is your guest list of every allowed piece of computing equipment.

Each device has its own media access control MAC address. Think of this as its signature. Your router uses these addresses to assign each machine on your network an internet protocol IP address. The MAC and IP addresses of your equipment will be useful in a moment when we look at ways to detect whether or not someone is stealing your WiFi. There are also a couple of important terms related to WiFi that you should know. A service set identifier SSID is the name that identifies a wireless network.

By default, this will probably be the name of your router — Netgear, Arris or ASUS or something similar — but you can have fun by changing it to something more personal or creative, like My WiFi Only, or anything you like. There are a number of WiFi varieties out in the wild, including The latest and greatest in WiFi is Note that in an effort to simplify all the gobbledygook jammed into WiFi names, the Wi-Fi Alliance updated its taxonomy in Now, The older versions, like If you're confused by some of this computer mumbo jumbo, don't be.

What's important is that you know what to look for when we get ready to diagnose your WiFi connection. There isn't a federal law against stealing someone's WiFi. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act penalizes anyone who "intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access" but it was passed before WiFi was common. Some states have laws against stealing WiFi [source: Nolo ]. In , a court in Michigan let a man off on felony charges for stealing a WiFi signal from a coffee shop while parked in his car.

The man had been checking his email and browsing the internet and said exactly that to a curious police officer. It was eventually determined the man had no idea what he was doing was illegal, let alone a felony.

OK, it's time to get down to it. Is your wireless network running slowly? Do you have intermittent losses in internet access and you can't figure out why? First, take a breath. In all likelihood, no one is stealing your internet. Tons of things could cause a slow connection.

Your internet service provider might be having issues or is overloaded with traffic. Your WiFi router might be experiencing interference from other electronics, or simply be having trouble penetrating the walls and furniture of your home to get a wireless signal to your computer.

There's only one thing you need to prevent Because this standard requires certain hardware specifications, many millions of older WiFi devices yet aren't able to use it. You don't need to know anything about how the encryption works — you just need to set up WPA2 or if you're an early adopter, WPA3 security on your wireless router and set a password for the network.

Make it something you can remember that's not easy for others to guess please don't use "password" or "!

So how do you configure your password? Some of the more tech-savvy would know this as We can assume however, that the most predominant protocol being used, at the time of this blog post, is If your Wi-Fi is unencrypted , then this it is important that you pay attention to this! Like any other form of radio communications, Wi-Fi travels over the air and there is no way to control who else can listen to the basic signal. Therefore it has no way to prevent piggybacking or snooping of its basic unencrypted signal, which is the term used when an unauthorized user is able to listen in on your conversation.

For an example, think of your local FM radio station. However, if you were to designate a FM radio station as private where the intended purpose is for only you and a select number of authorized people were supposed to be able to tune into a specific channel, the moment an unauthorized person tunes into the station, he is then to piggybacking on your station and listen to everything that is to be heard over the specific FM radio channel. Thankfully, unlike FM radio stations, Wi-Fi does not operate at extreme power levels, so the area of penetration that your computer and wireless router operate at is very low.

Although this does lowers the amount of area that people can intercept your data, it does not eliminate the risk. The ability to intercept Wi-Fi communications is very easy and nowadays, can be done even be done from a netbook or a simple kit. The software can be easily downloaded online and run by the click of a button.

These softwares are capable of handing the decryption of WEP, which, unfortunately is still used widely today on uninformed users. I have nothing to hide! They could then resell or use the information to impersonate you or steal your identity.