The Tech Question Thread

[dorian gray]

I'm always asking some stupid tech question and I have one right now so I thought I'd just start a thread that I can refer to anytime I have another dumb question.

Today's question: my friend has a laptop upon which she access the internet wirelessly while at home. She said she can't do anything that requires secure info because she's tapping into someone else's service. My questions are: how does she pick this up? Isn't it stealing? Isn't someone (her neighbor maybe) paying for this service? How does this wireless shit work?

 

[grazim]

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network.htm
She can connect to the signal because the owner has not encrypted it. Yes, this is stealing, assuming that the person she's leeching off of does not wish her to do so.

 

[dill_the_devil]

Yeah, this is really common actually. People with wireless internet connections are always forgetting to encrypt their shit, so anyone else within a certain radius can leech their connection.

 

[Thanatopsis123]

Wireless. I fucking hate it's range and stability but it's all I've got these days (two different connections I can leech off here).

 

[Guthrum]

All you would have to do here, is drive around downtown Huntsville with a laptop that's wireless and you'd have internet pretty much anywhere you went. Drive-by-hacking.

 

[dorian gray]

What's the best/easiest/most reliable/gayest method of backing stuff up? Specifically, the thousands of priceless pics I"ve taken of the fam over the past couple years. Maybe I'm dating myself here, but back in 'Nam, we used to hook-up a stand alone hard drive. Is that still common practice?

 

[spikes77]

hard drives are pretty cheap these days. You can get an internal for cheap if you want, or like you say just get an external one. I've seen externals for around 100 bucks that should have more than enough space for your pictures.

 

[En Vind Av Sorg]

Yea, I say just pick up a cheap external hard drive and throw it all on that.

 

[dorian gray]

Thanks, duders!

 

[dorian gray]

LOL, I still havent done this. I'm so lazy.
Anyway, I need to know how to make sure my laptop - which I have yet to purchase - can access the internet. Do I just need to buy a router and connect it to my cable modem or some shit? What does my laptop need to be able to receive signals? Further, how do I access the internet while I'm at work/on the road/mountain biking/murdering? I'm way behind the times here.

 

[cthulufhtagn]

just make sure it's a *wireless* router


i imagine you wandering around your house, holding your laptop up in the air, "trying to find a signal"

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

Er, how do I encrypt my wireless router?

 

[lurch70]

run the setup cd that came with it if you still have it ....

or type in 192.168.1.1 in your browser .. then admin/admin for login and fuck around there.

 

[dorian gray]

wtf?

 

[lurch70]

it was for dsev ... not you dim sum

 

[dorian gray]

Can I still use MS-DOS?

 

[Chromatose]

no

 

[dorian gray]

Who moved my cheese?

 

[Chromatose]

you can emulate dos though!

 

[dorian gray]

well.......ok