You will only get a login page if the person has pay-for-surf methods inplimented. Which is generally done using PPPoE (E being 'any ethernet medium', ie: 802.11x). You really should not connect to ANYONES access point unless you explicitly know it is a publicly usable access point where access is allowed. If you have any doubt, don't connect, because you are going against the wardriver ethic. Christian Flickinger spoon@xxxxxxxxxx www.spoonified.com www.nexdot.net This electronic message and all contents contain information which may be privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. The information is intended to be for the addressee only. If you are not the addressee, any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of the contents of this message is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify me immediately and destroy the original message and all copies. -----Original Message----- From: Julian Bond [mailto:julian_bond@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 9:48 AM To: netstumbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Headshot <headshot_001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Around my area there are some 802 networks. Some are secure - some are not. I DO NOT want to break into the secure networks. I figure that if some are unsecure (WEP not on) then they may be public networks. What I was asking is how, using a WinXP machine, can I connect and browse files / services / whatever to find out what they do.1) Fire up netstumbler. 2) Look for non-WEP APs 3) If an AP has an obvious manufacturers SSID such as "linksys" it's highly likely to be a wide open AP put up by a clueless admin. 4) If the SSID looks like it might be deliberately open (eg "tmobile") use XP to associate with it. 5) If the AP gives you a DHCP IP address, open the browser and see if you can access any websites. If it's deliberate, then it's highly likely to take you to a sign in page 6) Login, sign up, pay your money and surf away. Back to 3) There's quite a strong argument that if you connect to an AP, it's unsecured, it's running DHCP and it gives you an IP address and a gateway and you can then get an internet connection, then you've been welcomed to use a free gateway. This argument is made stronger because Win XP (and some other OSs) will do all this for you without you raising a finger. And if you happen to have Outlook running at the time it will go and collect your email on it's own as well. The argument against this is that if you take a consumer grade AP out the box and plug it in, then this is what you get even if you never meant to share your connection. Hence 4). You shouldn't really take advantage of the "Default Linksys Community Network" just because it's there. Notice that I haven't once referred to any legal issues in this post. I'm really not interested in these, but rather in practicalities. Headshot raises a good point "they may be public networks". Indeed they may. So look for Non-WEP and a non-default SSID. If you get DHCP, I think it's reasonable to assume that the sharing is deliberate. -- Julian Bond Email&MSM: julian.bond@xxxxxxxxxxxx Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/ Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/ M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173 T: +44 (0)192 0412 433 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- List-Help: <mailto:netstumbler-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:netstumbler-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> List-Subscribe: <mailto:netstumbler-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> List-Archive: http://www.michinganwireless.org/archive ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- List-Help: <mailto:netstumbler-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:netstumbler-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> List-Subscribe: <mailto:netstumbler-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> List-Archive: http://www.michinganwireless.org/archive -----------------------------------------------------------------------