TIL my neighbor's unsecured router let someone park in my driveway and mooch WiFi for months

My neighbor two doors down never set a password on their router. I noticed a car parked outside my house at 2 AM three times last month, turns out the driver was sitting there using their open signal. When I told my neighbor they finally put a password on it, and the car hasn't come back since. Has anyone else caught people leeching off open WiFi near their place?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper26d ago

Three years ago I caught a guy sitting in a minivan outside my place at 1 AM, he was using my open signal to run a whole gig downloading movies. I just put a MAC filter on my router and never saw him again. Takes five minutes and it stops the free riders cold.

the_charles26d ago

You're talking about the driver parking outside your house at 2 AM, and I get why that feels creepy. But honestly, if the signal was open and they weren't doing anything harmful, I don't see the big deal. I'd rather someone grab a little free WiFi than sit there and maybe break into cars or something worse.

daniel85726d ago

You said "if the signal was open and they weren't doing anything harmful" and I used to think exactly that way. I even left my own router open for years when I first got internet. But then my neighbor two doors down had his car broken into, and we found out the guy had been parking outside using the open WiFi to scope out the street for weeks. The open signal gave him a reason to be there without looking suspicious. I'm not saying everyone on open WiFi is up to no good, but it's a lot easier for bad actors to blend in when they've got a legitimate reason to sit in a dark car at 2 AM.