Ok, color me stupid, I really didn’t think any of *my* neighbors would steal from me. They all seemed so nice, seemed to have their own connection. We all usually banter occassionally on the unreliability of our wonderful ISP, and I’ve SEEN the company trucks in their driveway too. So who is stealing Wi-Fi from me, and why?
But tonight, when I realized that after an extended period of leaving my router wide open, and checking its status, I learned otherwise. TWO. Two piggybackers. Humpf! (grumble, grumble)
I know better than to leave my router unsecured. I had some connectivity issues, and at some point, I thought it was necessary to disable the security. No big. *If* I had remembered to turn it back on. Ok, so it’s partially my fault.
In all reality, I wouldn’t mind an occasional piggy backer. I can share. But then I realized, it isn’t just my connection I’m worried about, it’s my data. My personal data. If I thought a piggybacker would just surf the net, but what happens when that piggybacker is a criminal sitting in his car just outside my neighborhood. It opens up the possibility of loads of trouble. Loads of privacy and identity thefts. And while I like to sit here in my house, and think it won’t happen to me, I better think again.
So now I sit here and wonder who my two new friends were. I mean, they must be friends, right?? we shared the Internet together. I wouldn’t do that with just anyone.