Cable internet scam

[ronv]

Where I live we are captive to the developers cable company for high speed Internet. As a result the prices have gone up to almost $100 a month. My neighbors all have wireless routers and can see each others (one across the street, one next door). The question is could I get a wireless router connected to the cable Internet and have them share the same connection thus eliminating the extra connection fee? Would different e-mail addresses, security and stuff still work? Would we see a big hit in connection speed etc.?
Last but perhaps not least is it legal?

 

[Reloadron]

First, no it is likely not legal. It would depend on the cable companys TOS (Terms of Service) and the service contract but I would sure guess they have that covered. Would it work? Yes, it would work just fine. You would be creating your own little private network. You would set it up obviously so everyone on the network can't crawl around inside the systems of everyone else on the network but it would work. Those on the fringe would have the slowest speeds. Also, everyone can't decide to download the library of congress at the same time but it would work. You set up encription and everyone in the group has the pass phrase.

Ron

 

[ronsimpson]

I think you agreed to not do this in you contract.

I have cable internet in a rental property with 7 college students and their over-active computers. There is not a speed problem.

Years ago Quest sent me a letter. They wanted $5 more per computer. I called and asked them to check my usage. They told me I had one computer and it had 4 copies of MS-explorer open. The MAC address they gave me for the computer was actually for the router they did not know I had. They asked how many computer I had and I said one. .lol

Now I live too far from town to get anything. I have a wireless link for 5 miles to town. Then I resend the wireless to 3 of us. With a homemade antenna I can get another 5 miles.

 

[Grossel]

Last first: I'll guess it's not legal. Sure it's not legal where I live.

You WILL notica a massive impact on internet speed if a lot of people where connected to the same wireless router.

Sharing of files in folders would being a security risc, but wireless networks still is less secure than with cables.

Years ago Quest sent me a letter. They wanted $5 more per computer. I called and asked them to check my usage. They told me I had one computer and it had 4 copies of MS-explorer open. The MAC address they gave me for the computer was actually for the router they did not know I had. They asked how many computer I had and I said one. .lol

If I had a internet provider asking me that kind of question, I would not accepted that and I would canceled the contract the very same day.

Any internet provider that actually check the number of tabs and what kind of internet browser I use would heavilly discriminate the Privacy Law where I live, and probably it would also get in local news.

Do they really have the right to do that where you live?

 

[tcmtech]

If you don't tell them they will not know and if they do ask then just say as far as you know your house hold are the only users and that if anyone else is piggybacking on you its not affecting your speed enough to notice so you really don't care.

I say get the high speed and charge each neighbor who wants it $20 a month for it. Anyone complains they get to explain it to the others as to why they all lost their Internet connection.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I would guess to that it isn't legal.

You would not have a cable company address such as x@comcast.net, but gmail and yahoo would work fine. So would virus protection programs etc. Licensing of programs cannot be done with MAc addresses because the wireless MAC and wired MAC are different.

The MAC address of the router will be on the router label. A seguence of hex digits, separated by ":". Using IPCONFIG/ALL at the CMD prompt. the MAC address is the "Physical address" and Microsoft uses "-" separators for the IPV address and "-" for the IPv6 address.

The cable modem activation is tied to the router mac address and some cable modems alllow you to clone a MAC address.

Wireless access points can be used as well to add wireless capability to a network. That sometimes gets more difficult. I'm using an access point with a DSL modem in "bridge mode". It makes troubleshooting much harder.

Wireless repeaters could help people's signal within their house.

Some of the wireless routers have detachable antenna's with a reverse SMA connector. External antennas can also boost range.

With IPV4, the MAC address of your router is known to the cable company. The MAC address of the computer isn't. I believe, that with IPV6, the MAC address will always be transmitted. Not sure, though.

IPv6 is supposed to be able to increase the available Internet addresses beyond 256 bits. We have basically run out of IP4 addresses.

MAC addresses are technicly unique, but the oonly real requrement is that they are unique on a network segment.

 

[crutschow]

If the cable company is charging near $100 for internet then it's obvious they are gouging the public so I wouldn't feel too badly about possible breaking their rules of conduct. Just because what they are doing may be legal doesn't mean it's ethical.

 

[ronsimpson]

Set up a router in your house with a password that only you know.
At each house set up a router (wireless or not) and do not give then the admin. password. At each house use a different sub net address. Each house will have its own network. Not perfect but works here.

 

[ronv]

Reload,

What's a pass phrase?

I'm off to see if there are any terms of use.

 

[ronsimpson]

KeepItSimple is right. The center router needs to be in bridge mode. Or just get a bridge. I have used a WEP11. My new router has a bridge mode.

To keep it simple you could use just one wireless router and every one is on the same network. Trust???

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

KeepItSimple is right. The center router needs to be in bridge mode. Or just get a bridge. I have used a WEP11. My new router has a bridge mode.

Not really true. Some routers can be set up as an access point. You can either make them create their own DHCP address or use the DHCP server from the main network. You could, in principle have a different network name for the neighbors.

You can purchase a repeater/access point which has different capabilites than a router at your end and the individual houses. You can place yours at the closest point to the neighbors. Everybody else just has a repeater or two. The antenna system for a house is best placed in the center of the house. I have a repeater upstairs which basically allows me access on the porch and yard. I had issues with a laptop in the living room until I placed the repeater about 5' away from where I use the laptop.

A pass phrase is the same as the wireless key.

 

[Reloadron]

Reload,

What's a pass phrase?

I'm off to see if there are any terms of use.

I used the term "pass phrase" which is a key (think password). Wireless security in a network began as something simple, however, as things evolved it became more complicated. It's like ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) in a way. You develop a secure system and someone figures out how to hack it, you improve it, they hack it and so it goes along. Originally when it began WEP (Wired Equivalency Privacy) was popular. It involved generating a 26 Hex Digit code. The code or key was frequently developed from using a pass phrase. It's easier to remember a simple phrase than 26 hex digits. Things have evolved quite a bit but that is why I used the term. Today using basic WEP leaves the security door open.

As to setting up and extending a wireless network? Not difficult at all but it really depends on how in depth you want to get and what you want to spend. There are repeaters and all sorts of toys to extend the range of the wireless network, most of which have been covered.

Something else to consider that was mentioned is the MAC address. Every cable modem has a unique MAC address. That is how the cable system knows you are a paying subscriber. That MAC address for all purposes is you! Now if we come off your cable modem to a router the only thing the cable modem sees is the router but remember the cable modem's MAC address goes back to you! The cable company can monitor your bandwidth usage. Now if you decide to share your wireless with let's say 4 neighbors, all fine and well, despite the illegal aspect there can be another headache. A real illegal headache. OK, so two neighbors do occasional Internet browsing, email and basic ********, no big deal. However, the remaining two are busy on the Internet. One guy is downloading kiddie porn while the other is using a peer to peer site to download music illegally.

Now when the Feds kick down a door and confiscate every tron device in the house, guess whose house they will be in? That is just an example of how a well intentioned plan to screw the cable company a little can really run a muck. Even the download of legal files can burn you if you start exceeding bandwidth limits that many cable companies impose. You alone may never exceed the limit but you and four neighbors could.

So beyond the logistics of setting up a wireless network for a few friends what I mention is just a few more considerations to think about.

Ron

 

[ronsimpson]

This is like my trash pickup. One half of the total cost is overhead including billing.

For 2x the money they will pick up 4x the trash. Four houses can push their trash together for ½ the price each. The trash service said they did not want to hear about this. As long as only one person paid they would not complain.

I got a dumpster the size of a small truck and moved from weekly to monthly pickup. The price went to ¼.

 

[ronv]

Sounds pretty complicated for a computer illiterate like me. The simplest seems to be to just pick up the signal from across the street. One of the limitations they put on the service is 3 e-mail addresses so it would just be me and 1 neighbor. Maybe the thing to do would be to check the speed from across the street before going further?

 

[rasterburn]

some good points brought up, but one thing i would like to point out is in fact the legality of the issue, from my understanding it is not illegal to share your internet, after all everyone shares with someone, it only becomes illegal if you start charging for the internet, as for the email address', I dont think that many ISPs require you to have an email hosted by them in order to access the internet, both my wife and I dont use our ISPs email server and also dont have email accounts with them, as far as I am personally concerned if it was illegal to broadcast your internet to your neighbors then it is illegal to own a wireless router, heck I live in an apartment building and I pick up about 6 or 7 wireless signals, most of which belong to people who would be happy to give out their pass phrase to someone for $20/mo. just my $0.02

 

[Mr RB]

I'm not a lawyer but I think "illegal" means there is a law that bans it.

Most of what people have descibed above sounds like "breach of contract" between a business and a customer. Although that might be grounds for being disconnected (or even being sued on Judge Judy ) it does not necessarily mean that breaching that contract would be "illegal".

As an example your cable TV network contract probably bans you from recording a show and giving the DVD to a friend. But even though it is "breach of contract" it may or may not be "illegal" (depending on laws in your state).

 

[rasterburn]

as another example (just to expand the territory this instance covers) out here we use RFID cards for our transit service, the service bans the consumers from sharing their transit card but they have no way of tracking who is using the card just like with ISPs if you share your connection with your neighbors via wireless, the ISP only sees your router and the traffic coming from the wlan port on the router but nothing on your side of the router (they have no way of telling if you have 4 tabs open on your browser or if there are 4 computers on) not to mention its not uncommon for house holds to have multiple computers, laptops, and gaming consoles online at once.

The likelyness of your ISP sending out a tech to sit outside of your place in an unmarked van and intercept your wireless to pin-point all the computers connected is slim to non, so i wouldnt worry about it.

just a note i forgot to mention earlier, if your worries of the legalities are contained within what others may be looking at or otherwise downloading then simply go into your config settings on the router and block the known ports / address' (most routers log traffic) if you dont mind the little extra work on a weekend simply go through the list of addresses in the traffic logs and check each one to see where it leads and what it leads to (most porn lovers will either connect through p2p or will have a paid subscription on a site)

 

[Reloadron]

Sounds pretty complicated for a computer illiterate like me. The simplest seems to be to just pick up the signal from across the street. One of the limitations they put on the service is 3 e-mail addresses so it would just be me and 1 neighbor. Maybe the thing to do would be to check the speed from across the street before going further?

Then I wouldn't worry about it. Check signal strength and see what you have. Hell, my laptop works across the street at my neighbors just fine. Maybe 300 feet wood frame houses. I did screw around years ago using a cantenna design and though directional worked really well clear up the street maybe 300 yards line of sight unobstructed.

Ron

 

[ronv]

I think you are right. It is a contract issue not a legality issue. Near as I can make out from the terms of use is that they can disconnect you for lots of things but that seems to be the extent of it. I'll try to get my two neighbors with wireless to do some speed tests. Keep you posted.