Neighbors borrow wireless Internet (and forget to give it back)

By the time John Geraci got there, his pizza was cold. But then again, it was 20 degrees outside, he was an hour and a half late for the party, and he had never even met the host--at least not in person. Geraci, a New York University graduate student, and the handful of other guests had one thing in common. Most of them lived within a few hundred feet of each other and shared the same wireless Internet network called a “neighborhood node,” or a public access point.

Geraci likes to describe neighborhood nodes as “virtual town centers”--group message boards on a wireless access point, placed in a residential area and open to the public. As a graduate student, he started building these neighborhood nodes in the model of a public commons. He equates it with a “place that used to exist in old towns.” If you lived close enough to the space, he said, “you could walk to it and interact with your neighbors and be part of a community.”

Geraci is part of the growing number of wireless Internet users who are stretching the boundaries of this spreading phenomenon. In big cities like New York, wireless Internet access is growing rapidly, even as ethical questions about its use remain unanswered. If something is in the air and you take it without paying, are you doing something wrong?

A residential Internet connection costs about $30 to $60 a month, depending on speed and reliability of the connection, and it limits coverage to your apartment--theoretically, at least. In reality, the sharing of Internet connections can offer access throughout the city. Some large Internet service providers require customers to sign an initial service contract, an acceptable use policy or terms of agreement prohibiting the sharing of wireless Internet.

But using wireless Internet is easy--almost too easy. Wireless Internet transmits and receives signals at a specific frequency similar to that of cordless telephones. Any computer with a wireless card can access the Internet within its coverage range from so-called “hot spots.” Once activated, a user gets a list of all the available access points within the coverage area. Hot spot providers have the option of using a password to keep others from using their network or keeping it available for use by anyone within its reach.

Mikey Weiss, 30, owner of Mikey’s HookUp, an electronics store in Brooklyn, sees the sharing of Internet connections as a natural technological progression. “It doesn’t make sense why anyone would want to charge for wireless,” Weiss said. “It is like the radio.”

But others see wireless Internet sharing as fraught with peril, particularly for the uneducated consumer who might not realize the need for a password on their network or an encryption of their financial data. Without such protections, the wireless Internet user can unwittingly become fertile ground for hackers.

When most wireless users buy a home network, the default position is an open network, allowing anyone to tap into that computer, access the person’s files, check out what music they downloaded or print something off their computer.

Michael Levy, chief of computer crimes in the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said that users should be aware of their Internet settings and must determine the strength of their broadcast signal -— does it reach the rooms of one apartment, does it go through a few floors, can a passing car pick up the signal?

Even though the law doesn’t specifically address wireless Internet theft, Levy cautioned against tapping into another person’s wireless connection. “There are service statutes that cover people tapping into cable lines or electric lines and not paying for the service,” Levy said, likening that behavior to tapping into a wireless connection. “Although most people have never thought about it and have no bad intentions, they are getting Internet for free,” he said.

Still, many computer users see sharing of wireless as a “no harm situation.” Often they tap into a neighbor’s open connection without even knowing it. Just into his second week of marriage, Seth Andrew, 26, and his wife moved from Providence, R.I., to a new apartment and new jobs in New York. For Andrew, a self-employed education consultant, contact with clients was critical. Before their moving boxes were even unpacked, he turned on his laptop and tapped into his neighbor’s wireless connection.

“It's a conscious decision that someone makes to secure or insecure an access point,” Andrew said. “If you were using it on a constant basis maybe there would be some cause for concern, but if you were using it intermittently, I don’t see it as an ethical breach at all.”

NYCwireless is a nonprofit organization that teaches computer users about wireless technology and how to use it safely when traveling or when moving around cities with a laptop. Their members range from the seasoned professional to the first-time user.

The organization helps promote open wireless hot spots in public spaces and assists people in setting up connections that can be shared with neighbors and the community. They work with Internet service providers that allow for open access points and believe strongly in the sharing of access.

And as for the community hot spots? “There is nothing about it that is illegal,” said Dana Spiegel, a member of NYCwireless' board of directors. “Anyone that says it is, needs to go back and read the Bill of Rights again.”