IT ON BOARD

[Yar Well]

We are new to narrowboating and at the moment spend long weekends on our boat Lottie. We do intend however, when circumstances and commitments allow, to travel the system for 6 - 8 months a year. We would like to know therefore the best way and cheapest of getting broadband on the move. Are we going to be reliant on marinas with facilities or is there an an alternative.

 

Thom B

At home (Unfortunately)

[valrene9600]

I use an Orange office card. But at this present time i have linked on to an unsecured wireless connection from a nearby house or flat that back onto the canal. So i am not paying a bean.

[chris w]

I use an Orange office card. But at this present time i have linked on to an unsecured wireless connection from a nearby house or flat that back onto the canal. So i am not paying a bean.

Don't get caught (your IP address will have been logged) as you are committing a criminal offence. There was a prosecution over this a few months ago.

 

Chris

[tomandsophie]

Do a search for T-mobile. There are lots of details there about the connection I'm using right now. It costs £10 a month and has 2GB allowance per month at broadband speeds. Brilliant.

[Grasshopper]

Don't get caught (your IP address will have been logged) as you are committing a criminal offence. There was a prosecution over this a few months ago.

 

I must have missed that! Out of curiousity have you got a link with details, Chris?

 

I spend half my working life setting up wireless networks in people's homes these days and it is amazing how many unsecured networks I detect from their neighbours whilst I'm doing it.

[chris w]

Where does time go? I thought it was last year but was actually about 18 months ago. Here's the summary of the case plus the link.

 

"Man fined for hacking into wireless connection

July 25, 2005

Quentin Reade

 

A man has been fined £500 for hacking into a wireless connection.

 

It what is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, a jury at Isleworth court found Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, guilty of dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service.

 

Straszkiewicz was caught standing outside a building in a residential area holding a wireless-enabled laptop.

 

The Crown Prosecution Service said he was 'piggybacking' the wireless network that householders were using.

 

Straszkiewicz was fined £500 and sentenced to 12 months' conditional discharge. "

 

see: http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/news.php?id=66432

 

Intersting comment on the case here

 

Chris

Edited January 6, 2007 by chris w

[Gibbo]

Don't get caught (your IP address will have been logged)

 

?

 

The IP address will be that of the wireless network. The PC the culprit was using will be untraceable.

 

Gibbo

[chris w]

?

 

The IP address will be that of the wireless network. The PC the culprit was using will be untraceable.

 

Gibbo

 

I should have said MAC address (I was trying to keep the flow at a more basic level). The PC certainly WILL be traceable in that the MAC address will show up in the wireless router admin menu if the "neighbour" ever looks into that menu. On mine (and probably yours too) I have it set to reject all MAC addresses except those that I specifically allow.

 

Chris

[Grasshopper]

Thanks Chris. I'd totally missed that story. I'm amazed he was caught. If they didn't know enough to secure the network, I wonder how they spotted him connecting...... He probably shot his mouth off at the wrong time.

 

As someone on the comment thread said, I'm sure that it happens all the time inadvertantly. I recently had a call out to some customers because the husband couldn't connect to the internet but his wife could. When I arrived only his laptop was there but it was obvious from a quick check that no one was getting on the internet via their router. My conclusion was that the wife had inadvertantly connected to next doors network!

 

Oh & brownie points for MAC address filtering. Even when people lock down the SSID & encrypt, they very rarely MAC filter.

[Amicus]

I should have said MAC address (I was trying to keep the flow at a more basic level). The PC certainly WILL be traceable in that the MAC address will show up in the wireless router admin menu if the "neighbour" ever looks into that menu. On mine (and probably yours too) I have it set to reject all MAC addresses except those that I specifically allow.

 

Chris

So.... on my network here I've got MAC filtering and WPA, just how secure is this network and is there anythin else I should look at?

p.s. and I changed the router password.

[Grasshopper]

And you changed the SSID & stopped it broadcasting?

 

Then you're reasonably safe. Having said which, it has been demonstrated at security seminars that with the right equipment and software you can break into any wireless network. And fairly quickly.

 

But if we are talking about home networks and you don't have any commercial or military secrets on your PC, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The casual hacker will go for the unsecured network next door and the professional for somewhere where it is more worth his while for the effort.

[Amicus]

About SSID broadcast. I have ticked disable yet if I "view available networks" my network is there* is that as it ought to be?

 

* along with a couple of un-secured networks

[Grasshopper]

You can see it because you've told your PC what the SSID is. But your neighbours won't be able to see it.

 

Hence the importance of changing the SSID from the default one that comes with the router.

[Amicus]

Guess I'm covered every which way then

Many thanks Grasshopper

[valrene9600]

I use an Orange office card. But at this present time i have linked on to an unsecured wireless connection from a nearby house or flat that back onto the canal. So i am not paying a bean.

Well all very interesting the replies after mine, not that i understod much of it, but my linking onto a neighbours wireless connection was not my doing. When i switched on the laptop it was already connected so i assume mine searches all the time for connections.

[NB Alnwick]

Getting back to the original question - when we bought our boat a year and a half ago we were looking for reliable internet connection so that Graham could use his laptop on the boat for research on the Internet and for emails in connection with his work. We opted for Vodafone because (at that time) it offered the best 3G coverage and backup. We use the Internet a lot and a limit on bandwidth, such as is imposed by many other service providers, would have caused difficulties.

 

The cost of Vodafone is £45 per month + VAT which is a lot but we found that any comparable service would be about the same for the reliability and amount of use that we need.

 

Edited to say that Vodafone provide a very good 'coverage' map so that you can see how good the service is in the areas where you intend to use it. Unfortunately the interactive mapping site only workd with Micro-s**t Internet Explorer!

Edited January 7, 2007 by NB Alnwick

[Lesd]

Thanks for the coverage map, excellent. I wonder if anyone has found similar for the other providers so we could all actually make meningful comparisons ? I know there is a general assumption the voda and 02 have the better coverage, but I'd like to see exactly what they all have in my area before deciding. There area few small blue (non 3g) areas right near where I live which supprise me.....not not if one happened to be over your new perminant mooring !

[NB Alnwick]

There area few small blue (non 3g) areas right near where I live which supprise me.....not not if one happened to be over your new perminant mooring !

 

All this technology has made boating more complicated - in the old days we moored in a nice spot where we had a decent depth of water under us - now we need to ensure that we can get a clear view of the satellite for our Sky TV and that we are in a spot where it is possible to connect to the Internet via 3G . . .

[Grasshopper]

If you do a google for 3G coverage, you'll find links for the various companies. But most of them work by postcode.

 

Personally, I still just need the depth of water. I like the fact that the boat is disconnected from the modern world. But obviously I don't live on it.........

 

Well all very interesting the replies after mine, not that i understod much of it, but my linking onto a neighbours wireless connection was not my doing. When i switched on the laptop it was already connected so i assume mine searches all the time for connections.

 

I'm not sure that a defence of 'it wasn't me, it was my laptop' would stand up in court.........

[Serendipity]

I'm not sure that a defence of 'it wasn't me, it was my laptop' would stand up in court.........

 

Agreed - it wouldn't.

 

And don't forget if you're on their network, then whoever owns it can see your laptop, and with the right tools, whatever you have on it. Oh, and of course they see the traffic that is passing between you and the internet. Some people deliberately leave wireless networks open as a honeypot.

Edited January 7, 2007 by Serendipity

[Theo]

Thanks Chris. I'd totally missed that story. I'm amazed he was caught. If they didn't know enough to secure the network, I wonder how they spotted him connecting...... He probably shot his mouth off at the wrong time.

 

Isn't it extraordinary the way that some people advertise their crimes to the world! Surely the first rule of "getting away with it" must be to ensure that as few as possible know about it!

 

Nick

 

 

 

And you changed the SSID & stopped it broadcasting?

 

Then you're reasonably safe. Having said which, it has been demonstrated at security seminars that with the right equipment and software you can break into any wireless network. And fairly quickly.

 

But if we are talking about home networks and you don't have any commercial or military secrets on your PC, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The casual hacker will go for the unsecured network next door and the professional for somewhere where it is more worth his while for the effort.

 

 

What about when you sue the PC for internet banking?

 

Nick

 

Agreed - it wouldn't.

 

And don't forget if you're on their network, then whoever owns it can see your laptop, and with the right tools, whatever you have on it. Oh, and of course they see the traffic that is passing between you and the internet. Some people deliberately leave wireless networks open as a honeypot.

 

So they could, over time, build up a good profile of your internet usage and might just be able to extract some rather important passwords?

 

N

[Serendipity]

So they could, over time, build up a good profile of your internet usage and might just be able to extract some rather important passwords?

 

N

 

Your Internet usage with secure sites (HTTPS)is going to be encrypted, and so very difficult to get into. But everything else is 'open', including e-mails, and, as i said, very easy to get onto the contents of your laptop. Once a little information is gleaned, with some additional social engineering it's not difficult to get some software installed that will record all activity and keystrokes.

 

Now i'm not suggesting that this will happen with a brief visit to an unsecured network, just stating what's possible and that some nerds find cracking to be as enjoyable a pasttime as we do boating.

[Yar Well]

If you do a google for 3G coverage, you'll find links for the various companies. But most of them work by postcode.

 

Personally, I still just need the depth of water. I like the fact that the boat is disconnected from the modern world. But obviously I don't live on it.........

I'm not sure that a defence of 'it wasn't me, it was my laptop' would stand up in court.........

 

 

Thanks Grasshopper

The new Vodaphone gismO looks promising may wait awhile though to see if it becomes more competetive

 

Yar Well

[Grasshopper]

What about when you sue the PC for internet banking?

 

Nick

 

Ultimately it depends how paranoid you want to be. By definition a wireless network cannot be as secure as a wired one because you can more easily intercept wireless signals.

 

Having said that, banking sites use encryption as Serendipity says and usually have systems that try to protect against keyloggers - like putting your password in different orders or varying questions.

 

So assuming that you are using your OWN wireless network and have taken the above steps to secure it, I personally wouldn't worry about it.

 

But very little in life is risk free so as with everything else you have to make your own judgement about what level of risk you are happy to run.

[Nemesis]

I use t-mobile for phone and internet access.

I have a 3g phone with a t-mobile flext-20 package with the web-n-walk professional add on. You need the professional version of web-n-walk if you want to use the phone as a modem for internet access from a PC.

This packaged gives me unlimited download and £34 worth of free calls and texts every month (well, it’s not free, but you know what I mean).

The complete package costs me around £30 a month. NOTE: You get billed for some 0800 number calls, for example, I was billed £2.60 last month for a call to the sky technical support line when I lost channel 4 & 5 – that’s another story thoug.

I believe the flext-20 package has been reduced to £15 per month for new customers (I am paying £20 )

I hang the phone up in front of a window and connect my laptop to it over Bluetooth.

All in all, the package suites me very well. The only down side is that 3g reception is patchy and most of the time I am connected over GPRS at about 56k bits/second.