Names in this post have been changed (just a little) so as to not cause bad feelings.
I was retrieving the garbage can from the curbside a couple of days ago, and my neighbor from next door stopped me. "Hey Alan, I see your wireless router isn't working anymore. I told the kids not to stay on it too long, but they never listen to me. It didn't cost you any more for our using your internet connection, did it?". Son of a bitch, I thought to myself as I stood there dumbfounded by the sheer balls of this guy. I had seen the lights on my modem flickering madly one night, and I knew that no computers in the house were on. I figured somebody was using my connection. When I did a quick check of the network I saw that a computer with my tenants name on it was connected. I immediately reconfigured the router so that it was now secured, and only the three computers I authorized would be able to use it. Now I find out that not only were the tenants in my own building stealing my internet, but apparently the whole neighborhood was saving on paying for DSL by connecting to 'Alan'. As I stood there mumbling and stuttering, "Ah, yeah, ah that's okay Kelvin, it didn't cost me any more. I ah, ah, yeah, right.......", all I could think of was his unsupervised kids trolling for porn and other things on my internet connection.
The fact that I left my router unprotected cannot be defended, or excused. I knew I was vulnerable, but I was in such a hurry to get everything going I just bypassed the security part, thinking "I'll just do that when I have more time." It is now totally secure, but it has made me quite paranoid. Were there people parked out front, sitting in their cars with laptops, accessing things that could get me in trouble? And what about the neighbor kids? What kind of sick things could they have been looking at? Am I responsible for corrupting them? Whatever the answer, they will now have to go to the library to update their facebook and twitter. I'm not the ISP for my block anymore.
Now that the internet thing has been taken care of, I think maybe I should look into that cable strung across the fence from my satellite dish to the other neighbor's bedroom window.
