My new free ISP - Chicago Public Schools

For about the past 2 weeks the signal strength to my laptop on my wireless network has been extremely low, which I found odd since its usually quite good.

I’m on the laptop last night, going through email. I’m trying to open a link sent by a friend and start receiving a “Usage Policy Violation” page. WTF? Since when has my ISP started restricting content? I look more carefully at the “policy violation” and notice a blurb about “refer to the policy manual for what constitutes proper internet access while at school.” School? Huh?

I’m scatchin’ my head trying to figure out what’s happening when I look up from the screen and gaze out my window… at the high school across the street. For whatever reason the wireless card in the laptop was now picking up the Chicago public school’s wireless network… which is apparently not encrypted at all for general internet use. I can now flip back and forth between their network and mine. Unfortunately, I have very few nefarious plans that require execution (none in fact), so I’m not really certain if this situation is anything to get excited about. Although I suppose the next time we are looking for tenants in the upstairs apartment, I can put down “Free Internet Access” as one of the features.

This is becoming more and more common as people set up wireless networks. Sadly few people are aware that they can be giving free unsecured internet access to part of the neighborhood. I’m sure there will be some interesting cases where a kid used a neighbor’s connection to download donkey porn or hack a website only to have the unsuspecting neighbor later be hit with a bunch of questions (from his ISP or the cops) for which he/she has no explanations.