Someone in my neighborhood has an insecure wireless network. I want to tell them to secure it, but i don't know exactly who it is! All i know is their IP address, so how do i find out their road address?

Go here: http://www.arin.net/whois/
Find the Provider, and contact them
They will in turn contact the IP holder and let them know

Thank-you for your concern, for your fellow neighbours

I don't think so.The most you can get by tracing an ip address is the ISP, State, and City(State and city maybe incorrect at times). The best you can do is contacting the ISP, but I doubt that they will give you any info.

If you are willing to go to lengths, I would suggest that you make a note of the SSID that is being broadcasted, then proceed to go from door to door to find out whose network it is. It shouldn't take long. How far could this house be?

That may be counted as an invasion of privacy. Which could lead to the user stating that you have illegally used their bandwidth.

Best to let the ISP work it out, by going to the arin.net website and inputting their IP

Good point!

What????

How does reading an SSID from an open broadcast over public airwaves and then going to door-to-door asking my neighbors a question possibly constitute invasion of privacy? Or using their bandwith? Using it for what?

I'm not arguing the merits of ISP vs. going the door-to-door route (which, tw0rld, is right. How many doors could there be?) but i would argue the argument against a door-to-door approach.

I've been in exactly the same situation before. I actually used the unsecured connection to print to one of the computers in the house in question. I then knocked on a few doors and found the correct house, informed them of their vulnerability, showed them the printout, then offered to secure it all for them. They were horrified, but very grateful at the same time that i'd taken the trouble to help them out as they had no idea about any of this or how to secure it. They had family pics and all sorts that i could have stolen, then i could have easily locked them out as even their router admin page was unsecure.
I didn't charge them (before anyone asks), i just didn't want to see them become victims of unscrupulous cyber scum.
If ANY of your neighbours would consider you a busybody or whatnot for trying to help, then they can't be very good neighbours can they?!

k.jacko
TechSpot Enthusiast
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
:grinthumb , :approve: and a pat on the back for a good job (and nice deed) done

Never thought of that.... sending a file to their printer, that is a good idea. The fact that you were able to is incredible as you would think that they had a firewall installed. i bet you installed that too.....such a good lad.

Even though this has been answered... How far does your network go? Mine only goes a few houses out, yet it's secure. I have a couple down the road whos connection I easily got in. No password, nothing...