Confessions of a Wi-Fi Thief

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Confessions of a Wi-Fi ThiefYou know you have done it, walk around aimlessly with your laptop open, hungrily looking for a wi-fi signal. There are countless times while traveling that I've done this. I even know that some gas stations have wi-fi and I always check. I've already told you, I'm addicted to the internet (since 1990, when we had Prodigy). This article rings true for you too.

When I moved into my apartment three years ago, the first thing I did after I tipped the movers was sit down on a box, crack open my laptop and sniff the air for wi-fi signals. And I found them: my apartment was chock-full of delicious, invisible data, ripe for the plucking. You couldn't say I made a conscious decision at that exact moment to become a criminal. But it definitely got a lot harder not to be a criminal. For the next three years, I didn't pay for Internet access. Instead, I got online via the unsecured wireless networks of my neighbors.

Some people thought of creative names for their networks: ParisBrooklyn, MessageInaBottle. Some were boring: linksys, NETGEAR, default. I was always happy to see the boring ones, because the people who don't bother thinking of clever names for their home networks are the same people who don't bother to password-protect them.

(credit: Time)