For Rent: My wireless network

I enjoyed reading this OP-ED, and it seems like a reasonable idea

NY Times OP-ED
Won’t You Be My Wireless Neighbor?

FOR a long time, I relied on my Brooklyn neighbors’ generosity
— that is, their unsecured wireless networks — every time I connected to the Web.
<snip>
Then — crickets. The era of unintentional, unasked-for or simply unacknowledged
Internet sharing, it seemed, had come to an end.

Suddenly disconnected, I realized how lucky I’d been all those years,
having that tremendous body of information and awesome
communication technology at my fingertips, all basically free.
<snip>

Sometimes I’d imagine my anonymous benefactors, those people behind Netgear 1 or belkin54g,
thinking, “Well, I have Internet to spare.”

And, really, who doesn’t? Home wireless networks can usually support five or more computers,
yet there are only about 1.4 computers per American household.

For a few blindered weeks, I debated whether or not to finally “buy” the Internet.
The whole system, though, seemed wasteful: paying a company to come wire my apartment,
then paying a monthly fee so that I could maintain my own private territory within the cloud
of 20 or so wireless networks that were already humming around my apartment.

Why couldn’t I instead shell out a nominal fee — to someone, anyone —
to partake of the riches that were all around me in abundance?

Perhaps the solution is a simple, old-fashioned gesture.
Just knock on a neighbor’s door, and ask if she might be able to spare some wireless.

I turned the cable and internet off at my house because I'm hardly ever there. I may go knock on my neighbor, Jake's door and ask him if he is "The Rod" (the strongest secured network in range of my house) and then ask to borrow a cup of wireless.

Obviously Helen Rubenstein doesn't have the entrepreneur spirit. Otherwise she'd pay for high speed service and charge neighbors to use her wireless. If she did it right, she'd still get internet for free.

The installer got pissy when I told him to turn off the wireless option on my system. When he was finished the installation, he got in his truck and rode around to find an unsecured connection, so he could "phone home" to get my service turned on. I figure he got pissy because he was planning on using my system in the future.

Pete Zicato;705703 wrote:

Obviously Helen Rubenstein doesn't have the entrepreneur spirit.
Otherwise she'd pay for high speed service and charge neighbors to use her wireless.
If she did it right, she'd still get internet for free.

Your're right. My first reaction of the article was negative because I felt she was "stealing"
something from her neighbors. I guess, in fact, she is. It's infintestimal,
but her neighbors would probably still be upset if they knew about it.

But as I read on, I wondered about the people on porches and roof tops with binoculars
watching a sporting even or a drive-in movie.
Are they stealing something ?

The article also reminded me of a previous post about a Kenyan woman
who bought solar panel to charge her cell phone.
She found she could help out their neighbors for a small fee.

I suppose it can be either ethics or entrepreneurism, or both

There's also legal liability issues to consider. If someone is using your network for illegal purposes, guess who is held accountable. I would speak at length with a lawyer before attempting this sort of thing, and having them draft up a legally binding agreement with the third party about internet usage. Could all be moot anyway, because ISP's are known to be total dicks and probably won't care if you whine "it wasn't me, honest!"

Nevermind the fact that it would be against your service contract. Maybe they could just cancel you, or maybe they could sue you, depends on the EULA.