Just enabled the wireless on my laptop and Dell PDA and I'm sitting here in the living room watching AutoRox and surfing the internet on my laptop. Now, for the rub. I don't have a wireless router in this house. I have no clue how I'm surfing the internet right now. Anyone have any clues? I can't believe there's a free wifi spot in my suburban neighborhood, but . . .

This is just too cool. It's actually faster than my home cable modem connection.

What the heck?

Now to see if my PDA can do the same thing since it has wireless too.

Ask your neighbors...If they have it! Most applications are protected enough that you cant get through but, I have heard of some instances where it works.

ERV

.....its your neighbors.....

....my neighbor has his blocked......

Mine is blocked (encrypted), but the neighbor has one that is running "wide open". I get better signal from his than my own in some parts of the house, so I use it instead. You probably have a neighbor who has no security measures in place. Good for you, stupid for them.

I had an apartment where I could see 5 or 6 access points and my own. They are more common than you think.

Well, the name of the server is apparently "Ned's Laptop". I don't know a neighbor around here called Ned. What's the broadcast range of wireless normally? Maybe I can zero in on who is giving me this great privilege . . . If it's a good neighbor then I'd like to make sure he knows his connection is "open".

Outdoors, about 1300 feet (give or take). Combination of indoors/outdoors....under 1300 feet.....

Depending on whether it is a,b, or g they are right next door or about 500 feet from you. Clear air as said above is good for 802.11b at 1Mb/s at 1300'.

You can use the signal strength meter built in to XP or the wireless adapter client utility to get a very good idea where to expect the access point is housed. If the signal is overwhelming the meter, sheild the antenna with your body. IE put you between the computer and where you think it is.

Have fun

Which reminds me, I need to probably make ours a little more secure. But then, my one neighbour has no computer, the other runs his wireless ISP from his house (radio based- he has a huge radio mast in the back yard). I doubt the neighbour across the street can see ours, since I hardly see it in the garage. I guess that is an advantage of living in the country!

It's absolutely amazing how many people don't turn on even basic security on their home (or small business) wireless networks. The last security class I was in we had a guest speaker on wireless security. In a 2 mile stretch from his hotel to the training facility he found over 200 wireless networks, with around 50% of them wide open to anyone, and another 25% using the standard security settings that came with the routers (which can be easily found on the Internet). That left only 25% that actually had decent security enabled on their wireless networks. And this was primarily a business area, the vast majority of home users leave security completely turned off because it's too hard for them to figure out setting WEP keys.

Here is a wardrive I did down I-35 a couple months ago. This is a 210 mile stretch from Fort Worth to just south of Austin. The laptop was beeping so much from finding access points that I shut off the sound after the first few miles. As you can see, 90% of them are unsecured.

When I stopped at Taco Bell I hopped online to tell the girlfriend where I was at.

You can see the grand total for the access points, as well as one of the many weird names people give their access point/routers.

Keep in mind these are also signals gathered from the interstate and also flying down the road at 70 mph.

What's really scary is that many of the wireless routers/access points are coming with security turned off by default. I do some computer work on the side, and one of my customers just bought a brand new D-link wireless g router for me to install for them, and all security is truned off by default and there is also no default password on the unit.

I have wireless at home (b/g) and have had wireless for years.

I can pick up wireless networks where I live. Most people are clueless when they set them up.

The person you're connected too is probably VERY close. Mine doesn't hardly make it all the way through my apartment right now. I NEVER have gotten more than 75 feet or so between two houses. My ex-neighbors and I use to share a DSL connection and we used wireless to bridge the two houses together. That was marginal. It's possible they are using an external directional antenna and you might happen to be in the path. Don't know though.

So I don't think they're too far away.

I pick up my next door neighbor's signal as well. It comes in very handy when you are a broke college student

It will be a long time before I unplug the cat 5 from my computers.

I can pickup 1 person from my place but signal is fairly weak... it's secured, though.
First thing I did was change the password and make it secured.
Once the setup is complete, I don't even make it broadcast... so it's invisible to people... unless you know the name and key to it.

I plan to get a wireless setup after retirement, although I hope to have my own network in the house as well. House was built with CAT 5 wiring to most rooms.

I can pick up at least one wireless signal here in my barracks room, which is a full concrete building.

My dad got his wireless setup installed by his ISP/cable/phone company; shortly afterwards, he noticed that anytime he made a call on his cordless home phone while he was surfing, he lost his internet connection. Turns out the phone was on a similar frequency. He noticed it when he was watching a NASCAR race and was tuned into the Track Pass feature on the propaganda website, and he and I were talking on our cellphones and his wife would make a call on the house cordless phone. All surfing stopped until the house phone call was completed. He got the technicians to come out and fix that rather quickly...