Secure your WiFi or get disconnected from broadband

The government is pushing through a new law to disconnect households if there is an accusation of illegal filesharing for the broadband account's IP address at the time filesharing occurred.

I'm sure most forum members have secure WiFi, but if you or friends only have WEP or open WiFi (like 7 million homes in the UK), it's really worth implementing at least WPA/TKIP and preferable WPA2 (using AES).

If you use Windows XP and want WPA2, you need the Microsoft WPA2 client update - other OSes will have something similar, but check that WPA2 is working, if you have both TKIP and AES enabled.

It's also a good idea to have some sort of legal document that friends who use your WiFi or computers have to sign saying they won't illegally share files - completely ridiculous I know, but who wants to get disconnected because someone else was stupid...

See my sig for more details on the proposed bill.

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Mar-10 13:40:40)

Lets get this correct, no disconnection will happen on first accussation, second or third.

Also what do you mean by disconnection? Temporary or permanent?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Lets get this correct, no disconnection will happen on first accussation, second or third.

Also what do you mean by disconnection? Temporary or permanent?

and what difference will securing your wi-fi make?

I presume the OP is trying to help people avoid getting the warning letters when they've done nothing

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

I presume the OP is trying to help people avoid getting the warning letters when they've done nothing

That won't work given the predilection of pirates for spoofing other people's IP addresses, unless you're anticipating warnings saying "we've noticed your wi-fi is insecure".

If you have open WiFi, or it's only secured by WEP, a neighbour can very easily illegally download and shared copyrighted files over your broadband connection. A copyright holder can detect this (usually by connecting to BitTorrent trackers to find out who is sharing the files), and get the IP address in question.

They then find out the account holder's name and address from the ISP, and today they will send them a letter, usually saying pay us something like £500 or we will sue you. Note that this goes to the broadband account holder, not the neighbour.

The new part under the proposed Bill is that the copyright holder can get you disconnected from broadband if they send you a number of warning letters and the filesharing does not stop. There are various steps they have to go through - see http://www.dontdisconnect.us/the-proposals/ - and if you can stop the neighbour doing this, ideally by securing your WiFi, you should not get disconnected.

If you keep getting the warning letters (perhaps because of guests, children or you don't know about securing your WiFi), and don't win an appeal, then you will eventually be disconnected from broadband - or at least that's one of the "technical measures" that is being considered in "secondary legislation". One of the problems with the Bill is that once it is law, there is a lot more flexibility for the government to implement measures that it wants, with less scrutiny by Parliament than a normal Bill. So it's hard to say exactly how long a disconnection would last, or whether other measures would be taken first (e.g. traffic shaping to a very low rate).

In reply to a post by Cato2:

If you have open WiFi, or it's only secured by WEP, a neighbour can very easily illegally download and shared copyrighted files over your broadband connection

They may be able to download, but I doubt they would share. I don't think breaking WEP is as easy as you do.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

That won't work given the predilection of pirates for spoofing other people's IP addresses, unless you're anticipating warnings saying "we've noticed your wi-fi is insecure".

It's certainly possible to spoof IP addresses in a Torrent tracker, and pro-piracy groups are doing that actively - however, it should be somewhat more feasible to appeal against that, compared to the situation when illegal filesharing has happened on your connection.

Also if someone in your house has done the illegal filesharing, it's usually easier to find out than if a neighbour has done it. So it's still worth securing your WiFi to cover one aspect at least.

In reply to a post by Cato2:

It's certainly possible to spoof IP addresses in a Torrent tracker, and pro-piracy groups are doing that actively - however, it should be somewhat more feasible to appeal against that

How would you appeal against that?

Agreed, remember this is a civil case if it went all the way to a court, and computer forensics are not going to help