Re: Can you contact the owner of an unsecured network??


"Peabody" <waybackNO784SPAM44@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4U8hi.177716$dC2.22812@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nel says...

Logged into my laptop in bed last night and noticed that
I'd connected to someone else's connection, rather than
my own.

At your end, how did this happen without your being aware of
it? Does your laptop just connect to anything it finds?
That's what I thought, and I've certainly not connected in the past to it.
I can only think that my wife must have used the laptop for her Ebaying,
been in a deadzone for my connection, and has clicked OK when presented with
the "unsecured network" warning without even reading it!!

Curiosity got the better of me and I had a bit of a
peruse and quickly found as well as being unsecured, his
router was also password-less and as well as my
accidental connection there was FOUR other PC's/laptops
connected!! I can't believe that if the owner had that
much kit, he'd also know nothing about security.

Is there any way I can get a message to him, even
offering to help him set it up?

Maybe the router owner isn't the only one with a problem. I
may be completely wrong about this, but it seems to me that
if all of these computers still have the Windows default
workgroup name ("WORKGROUP"), then you not only have
internet access through the router, but also have become
part of the same LAN, and have become infectable by each
other's malware, and have access to each other's shares.
I don't use any default workgroup names and I'm well firewalled, so I should
be OK but I see where you're coming from.

Maybe he's the one that knows what he's doing, and the rest
of you are being baited. :-)

Maybe! Anyway, I'm thinking I might just forget about it - it they haven't
got the brains to set it up properly (and it's not rocket science!) why am I
on here debating and worrying about it!!


.

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