The Computer Corner
By Charles Miller 
The ethics of poaching

In recent months as I walk through the Jardín, I notice more and more poachers. These are the folks sitting on one of the benches facing the Presidencia and using their laptop computers to “poach” the spillover Wi-Fi signal.

Practically every laptop computer sold in the last few years includes an 802.11-compliant wireless network adapter, all that is needed to become a poacher.

Some sources say that as many as two-thirds of Wi-Fi signals are not secured by password or encryption. The obvious reason for this is most wireless routers do not have a password or encryption set by default. Most users simply take the equipment out of the box and plug it in, and they have no idea their signal is being poached.

The potential is certainly there for poachers to commit nefarious acts, but I do not see this as a common occurrence. Most poachers do it just to check their email or surf a few websites. I see some poachers latching onto a neighbor’s stray Wi-Fi signal as simply a way to save money.

Personally, I take issue with this activity being characterized as signal theft. I know that some allege this situation is like leaving the house unlocked; just because the door isn’t locked doesn’t mean you can come in. This is an inappropriate analogy though, because the poacher is not trespassing by using the signal being broadcast across the owner’s property line. Nothing really is being stolen, because the owner of the wireless signal is paying a flat fee, and it is technically unlikely that poaching part of the bandwidth would saturate the connection.

The respected computer writer John Dvorak has come up with the best analogy I have read to date. He poses the following hypothetical: If your neighbor were watering his lawn, and if his sprinkler were spraying water out onto the street as well as his lawn, and if you parked your car in that place on the street so that the sprinkler would give your car a free wash… It is not your water and you did not pay for it. You took it and you benefited from it. Is that stealing your neighbor’s water?

The person who owns the Wi-Fi signal has to be the responsible party here. People have the right and the obligation to password-protect their signal if they want nobody else to use it. If their neighbors poach the stray signal, they were only using what was freely given.

So long as the poacher is not using the Wi-Fi signal for any illegal purpose, and not poaching through circumvention of passwords or encryption, then I do not see any problem here.

The Wi-Fi access point at my house is unsecured and my landlord poaches off my signal. One night I noticed a second computer poaching off my internet connection. Later when I went to the bedroom window to draw the curtains, I spotted a young lady sitting in an open window across the street with a laptop computer. I had not seen her before, and she might have been a visitor. Knowing that the station identifier for my access point is “Carlos,” I knew that her computer had to be telling her “Connected to Carlos, signal strength Excellent.”


I knew she would have been startled had I called out, so I just closed the curtains. I hope I have the opportunity to meet her in the street one day, though. I will say, “Mucho gusto encontrarle. Me llamo Carlos.”


Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044 (415) 101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.