An Ethical Quandry
A bit of a difficulty this week. I keep our wireless access unencrypted because it makes life easier for visiting friends and the kid’s video games. I figure the occasional external access isn’t that big a deal, but keep an eye on usage just to be sure. Oh, and I named the access point “Network Virus” to scare off the less technically adept.
Well, this week I noticed a lot of wireless activity. Logs showed it was one or two people with a Mac and another unidentified computer. Activity was pretty regular, and light. Normally not a problem since I don’t mind people who need a little access doing so, but there is always the worry of getting blamed for an illegal activity. At least the low packet rate suggested no file sharing going on.
So this lit a fire under my butt and I finally got around to putting a transparent proxy in (it’s only been on the drawing board for two years). So next time a wireless system connected I watched the logs. There was nothing untoward, but the sites visited suggested a technically savvy person (well, somewhat — Wired?).
Given that, I figured the hookup was probably a mistake. I renamed the network to “This is being logged” and used squid redirect to get the person’s attention. It didn’t seem to work (or may have been too subtle) since they logged in to check e*bay a few hours later (though there was evidence the two computers are the same person since five minutes after the PC logged out the Mac attached and tried the same address).
Now, I’m not trying to be a jerk. If this really is their only way to access the internet, I don’t want to block it. But at the same time, I’d really like to know who it is so that I can redirect the police if they show up at my door. At least a promise to not do anything illegal and an actual request to use the connection would be nice.
So, I’m not being subtle this time. Everything will be redirected here for a while (at least until the next time they connect) and based on the reaction I’ll either rest easy that the neighbors just need a hookup, or I’ll lock out wireless. I realize if the person is a total a*hole I’m opening myself up to attack, but I’m assuming it was just a simple piggyback and no harm was meant.