BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, March 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM


Monaster/News

Daily News reporter Tracy Connor had free Internet access - until she told her neighbor she'd been borrowing her broadband.
I have a confession to make: I steal from my neighbor.

Not the pie off the windowsill or even quarters from the laundry room.

I steal Wi-Fi.

At least once a day, I piggyback onto my next-door neighbor's wireless signal to access the Internet.

I'm far from alone.

In fact, about half of all computer users admit they have "borrowed" someone else's Wi-Fi without their permission at least once, according to industry surveys.

Technically, it might be illegal in some jurisdictions. One poor schmuck in Florida was arrested for poaching in 2005. Morally, it's a gray area. I became an Internet thief by accident - then made a conscious decision to continue my life of maybe-crime.

For a few years, I paid my cable TV company for Internet service, using a router to generate a Wi-Fi signal in my apartment. Then the router went on the fritz. I had to reboot constantly, and it was in a hard-to-reach place.

Fed up, one day I had my laptop search for a different signal. Two dozen popped up.

Most were encrypted, meaning you needed a password for access, but on a half-dozen the subscriber hadn't activated privacy controls. I wasn't surprised; I hadn't bothered to password protect my own Wi-Fi signal.

One signal belonged to my neighbor, whose name was listed clearly. The signal was strong, and I used it to check my e-mail.

As my router conked out again and again, I found myself clicking onto my neighbor's signal more often. After a couple of weeks, I wondered: "Why am I paying for Internet service?"

Each month, I was getting a $40 bill for something free out there in the ether. I called Cablevision and canceled my service.

That was a year ago. Since then, I haven't paid for Web access, which I figure has saved me $500. As far as I know, there isn't a warrant out for my arrest. In fact, it's not clear I'm breaking the law. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney told me she's never heard of anyone in the city getting in trouble for Wi-Fi stealing.

Theoretically, my neighbor could be in breach of her contract with her service provider by letting someone else use the signal. But there really doesn't seem to be a crackdown underway. A rep for Time Warner Cable said while the company doesn't "encourage" Wi-Fi sharing, it's not hunting for violators.

But the wireless industry, in general, wants to end poaching.

Mike Haro, a senior analyst at Net security firm Sophos, said the widespread practice creates two main problems.

The first is that signal leeches use up a paying customer's bandwidth, which can slow the connection, especially if online video games or music downloads are involved. The second is that unprotected Wi-Fi signals are open to cybercriminals, not just cheapskates like me.


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"If someone intentionally wants to steal or eavesdrop on personal information of yours, they can do so by compromising an unsecured Wi-Fi network and have their way with an unsecured PC," Haro said.

Despite the risk, one in three people don't secure their Wi-Fi networks, said Karen Hanley of the Wi-Fi Alliance. "In some cases, it's because they don't understand how. There are a percentage of people who don't believe in securing it."

I wondered which category my neighbor fell into, so I decided to come out of the Wi-Fi closet and ask.

To my surprise, she told me she didn't even realize she had a Wi-Fi signal. Her computer is hard-wired, but the guy who set it up must have put in a router.

Had she noticed any problems? Nope. I was relieved because I had always tried to be a considerate thief: using her signal when her family was out of the house or asleep, usually just to check e-mail and a few Web sites.

She didn't seem to care that I was helping myself to the high-tech version of the pie on the windowsill.

But two days later, I noticed the signal disappeared.

Must be having computer problems, I thought. But a day later, it was still gone, and I figured I'd been cut off. My free ride was over.

I could e-mail her to make sure, but I'm having some trouble connecting to the Internet.

tconnor@nydailynews.comTHOMAS MONASTER/DAILY NEWSMooching Web access from her neighbor worked well for awhile, but then she felt the need to 'fess upEach month, I was getting a $40 bill for something free out there in the ether.

I stole a neighbor's Wi-Fi for a few months after I first got a computer. I had intended to get my own (even bought an AirPort when I got my computer), but the signal was just there, so...

I was getting cable for free at the time (because of a billing error with the cable company) and I didn't have a land line phone (and didn't want to get one for DSL), so I just coasted for awhile.

Eventually, the cable company caught up with me (figured things out they came to hook up another condo in my building ) and the Wi-Fi was just too unreliable, so I got my own.