Ashton Mills05 February 2007, 4:19 AM
What happens when you give Wi-Fi to your retired parents? Well, clearly, they go out and hack the gibson like any sensible well-equipped individual would do.
Oh, this is a story I just had to relate. What happens when you give advanced technology to your retired parents? Well, clearly, they go out and hack the gibson like any sensible well-equipped individual would do. I just found out: my mum's a wardriver.
First, a little bit about my lovely mum. She's essentially retired, lives in a nice suburb on the coast, and I'd tell you her age but the consequences wouldn't be pretty. Last year, with her old desktop PC dying (and when I say old I mean old: it was a Gateway) I decided to get her a snazzy new laptop she can take with her for her small business and for travels.
More on the travel part in a moment.
So it's a semi-top-of-the-range beastie with a big bright screen, dual-core processor, oodles of drive space, and wireless. Wireless because then, at home, she can email photos to the rellies from the comfort of her lounge or deck, instead of some stuffy office room.
What I didn't realise is just how much my mum liked to stay connected. Always keen to learn new things, she quickly discovered she could use it wherever a wireless network was, like at some cafes and the airport. She must have used a number of free ones, as I learnt all this in a conversation that when something like this:
Mum: Oh I couldn't find a network I could get onto on the way up today
Me: What do you mean?
Mum: All the cafes and stops with wireless had a password on them, the buggers!
*I blink*
Me: Yes, yes they do that mum.
Mum: Well I couldn't email!
Me: No, you have to pay at those places. Some might be free, but others charge.
I thought this was a funny enough exchange as it was -- I mean my mum, bless her, wonders why the world sends her spam, and why this Norton bloke makes her shiny new laptop run so slow. She's very sharp though so I explain most things in geekesque. She couldn't understand why she was getting emails not directly addressed to her, and I had to expain that the address fields she sees can be spoofed. Which in turn required another explanation.
What I learned though was that she was quite adept at getting her laptop out at various places and, if she could see a network, getting on for some emailing.
The conversation continued, and while staying at a friends place who didn't have internet access, she told me how she had managed to get online. The exchange went a little like this:
Mum: She didn't have wireless, but it's ok I found a network in the street
Me: What? You mean on the road?
Mum: Yes, I just drove round the block and I found another network!
Me: What? You connected to someone else's wireless network?
Mum: Yeah! It was great! I sent some emails.
*I blink, impressed*
Me: You were wardriving mum?
Mum: What's that?
Me: It's when you use someone else's network, you know, without asking
Mum: Oh, it's ok. It's my mail account, so I pay for it.
Me: Ummm...
And then I explained just what happens when her mail is sent and received, and how it wasn't actually her cost she was incurring. In amongst the howls of laughter from us both, with the image of my old mum (*cough* young, sorry mum) driving the streets eking out networks, cracker extraordinaire, hacking the gibson, and taking it to the man, I went on to explain the culture of wardriving, of the archaic symbols that are supposed to be used (but rarely actually seen) to indicate hotspots, and the maps of known networks some wardrivers build. And that for all intents and purposes, she was wardriving. Well, Wikipedia would bring me up on a technicality, but it's certainly more fun to think of it this way.
Mum: Oh, I didn't know that
Me: So, was this the first time you've done this?
Mum: Oh no, I've done it before. There are networks in lots of places.
Me: Yes, yes there are. But they're not all free. At least, not intentionally!
Mum: So, does that mean someone could be using my ISP at home?
Me: No, as we put one of those pesky passwords on your router
Mum: Oh, so how could I access that one around the corner?
Me: Well, that's a question best asked of the network vendors who leave them open by default
Mum: Oh, I see.
Me: So, you realise, I just have to write this up now!
And here we are. Aside from the fact I'm still chortling (now there's a word we haven't heard in a while) it just goes to show the enabling abilities of technology has in the hands of capable people, not to mention for those who didn't grow up in an age of pervasive computing just how things like networks and the internet actually work.
This isn't explained anywhere by the vendor of her laptop she got, or with her wireless router, or the ISP through which she receives and sends mail. So much is assumed today because it's become all pervasive. But we forget, not everyone in our society is as technically savvy.
If I was allowed onto a network wherever I opened my laptop, I'd assume it was free too. Afterall as the Wikipedia entry states, from a technical viewpoint everything is working as designed.
 Warchalking: Keep a lookout for this code in your parent's belongings |