Using Skype in kitchen over neighbour's WiFi

[markgriffith]

I am completely ignorant.

My laptop is letting me do this [over some neighbour's WiFi - I don't even know who], but it seems I cannot do Skype or Yahoo Messenger phoning-type things.

Presumably he has set certain preferences or cookie whatsits, and there is nothing I can do about this?

Thank you for humouring me.

[Whiternoise]

Would this not be considered illegal?

On a serious note though, there's probably not much you can do about it.

[JPreston]

Ooh you can get done for doing that. And, if your neighbour has a security light that shines onto your front garden and he catches you reading by it - you can get done for that too.

Legality aside I would think that if you can connect with your browser, you can connect with anything, but I don't know either. Because I'm not a thieving pikey so I have my own broadband

[Clunk]

Knock on and ask him to change his router, he will be ok about it because its only 00:28am. Fact.

[charleski]

Quick! Log onto your botnet herder through his WiFi and DDoS sony.com.

[Saracen]

Would this not be considered illegal?

On a serious note though, there's probably not much you can do about it.

Well, yup. Technically, I'd suspect it's an offence under the Computer Misuse Act ..... and if so, he could get up to a £5000 fine, six months inside, or both. And, of course, a criminal record.

But hey, it's worth the risk, right?

[Moby-Dick]

stealing other peoples bandwidth is bad ... m'kay ?

however I've given the matter ( and several others like it) some thought.

While its is illegal to use that bandwidth without permission what woudl be an even better idea woudl be to try and track down the source, explain to them that their wireless point is open , help them lock it down , and share the bandwidth for a token gesture. ( I find a 4 pack of beer works well as said gesture )

however this may go against certain ISP's T&C , so I'd also advise you check those first.