Originally Posted by
GenevaFlyer
Having read through the whole thread, there is one thing I will say, and it's been mentionned already. You are opening up a resource that is paid by your company to the outside world. While your company provides it as a courtesy service to visitors, I'm sure they do not intend it to be available across the street. As such, I do believe that you are mis-using your company's resources, which has to be against policy.
Let me guess . . . you work in IT, right?
Okay:
1.
I didn't open this resource. My firm did by deciding to make the connection insecure. It was a specific and deliberate choice by the firm not to use WAP or even WEP.
2. I have specific and express permission from IT to do what I've done, i.e. install the WiFi amplifier and range extenders. I am not "misusing" firm resources.
3. Using signal extenders is something anyone can do without tampering with the network, i.e. anyone within range of our signal, e.g. the restaurant on the corner or the hotel next door, could use signal extenders to extend our signal from Santa Monica to New York City (though it would take a lot of extenders). There's nothing the firm could do (on a technical basis) to prevent it.
I'm sure that your computer policy has something about changing configurations, including a wireless router that is company property (while you are not hacking the config, you are changing the network topology).
Sorry, but that's sophistry. You might as well say that anyone who connects to the network with a laptop is also changing the topology.
(And if they are in the slight bit serious about security, they will run the occasional sweep for unauthorized wireless).
Once again -- this was done with full disclosure to the IT department and PERMISSION.