business fixing insecure wifi?

What do people think about the idea of driving around
a neighborhood, finding homes with insecure access points,
and then offering to fix the problem for a flat fee?

Ian

Ian wrote:

> What do people think about the idea of driving around
> a neighborhood, finding homes with insecure access points,
> and then offering to fix the problem for a flat fee?
>
> Ian
>
Hi,
Isn't your snooping illegal to begin with?
Tony

Ian wrote:
> What do people think about the idea of driving around
> a neighborhood, finding homes with insecure access points,
> and then offering to fix the problem for a flat fee?
>
> Ian

I think you'll find that they won't pay.

"Tony Hwang" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:WjiFe.44238$s54.29660@pd7tw2no...
> Ian wrote:
>
> > What do people think about the idea of driving around
> > a neighborhood, finding homes with insecure access points,
> > and then offering to fix the problem for a flat fee?
> >
> > Ian
> >
> Hi,
> Isn't your snooping illegal to begin with?
> Tony

Now that I suspect is a moral question, He could drive around using
netstumbler and a gps, thats legal, log all unsecured networks (data
protection act! ), knock on peoples doors, now in the UK I suspect you are
acting on information you have received by wireless puts you on dodgy
ground! Some people may be happy to be told, on the other hand I suspect a
punch on the mouth would be what he would receive at most doors!

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 21:10:39 -0400, Ian <ian.to(UNSPAM)@sympatico.ca>
wrote:

>What do people think about the idea of driving around
>a neighborhood, finding homes with insecure access points,
>and then offering to fix the problem for a flat fee?

Most would consider it an intrusion on their privacy. Were someone to
bang on my door with that line, I would immediately ask how they found
me, what other info have they extracted from my computer, and why are
you bugging me during dinner? If you simply leave a document
indicating what you've found, my guess is you'll get about a 10%
response rate, of which only 1% will be paying customers. The problem
is that most home computer users seem to think that "support" is free,
and that the only time they need to pay for services is for repair or
for the ISP. That means you'll need to convince them that their
system is broken, something that few are going to admit. Also, just
about everyone has a "friend in the computah business", whom they will
want to consult before dealing with you. More than likely, the friend
will setup the security for free as it's not particularly difficult.

The few customers that are interested will create a liability
situation. When you work on a customers computah or network, you
effectively inherit a service contract on their system. Anything that
remains broken, remains unfixed, or happens in the immediate future is
your problem. You have to fix everything, or get the customer to sign
some kind of release claiming that you only worked on the wireless and
not the computer. Since about 80% of the computahs that I see for the
first time have viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and insufficient
updates, you may need to expand your business plan. I would not let
some stranger work on my machine, and I don't think any of your
potential customers would either.

I actually had a similar business plan many years ago. Most of the
old IBM mono monitors belched so much RFI, that I could hear it on a
short wave receiver outside the building. It was fairly easy to
determine which houses had computers. My plan was to bang on the door
and solicit a potential customer. Total failure. Almost everyone I
tried considered it an intrusion.

When I disclosed how I found their computer, many went into panic
mode. The problem was that I had selected to do this is the city of
Capitola. Their brilliant city council decided that it was time to
enforce their ban on operating a home business without a license.
They were going around issuing zoning violations to anyone that
appeared to be operating a home business in the city limits. That
didn't last long, but it sure ruined my business plan.

When I switched to businesses, I discovered that just about every
business already had a staff or outside computer expert. They would
not let me even see the computer without first consulting their
expert. I did manage to get one business as a customer, but that was
only because they were dissatisfied with their existing computer
expert and wanted a change anyway.

Flat fees in the repair business are suicide. I used to sell service
contracts when I was in the commercial 2-way radio business. It
wasn't because I thought I could make more money, but because the
banks treated contracts as continuous income and would therefore issue
an accounts receivable loan with the contracts as proof of income. I
lost my ass on the contracts because customers would abuse the
contract. It's the same way with computers. Too many trivial
problems magically become a crisis if the customer knows they're not
paying extra. I get this now even when I bill for time and materials.
I get called to fix a problem, and find myself faces with dozens that
nobody told me about on the assumption that only the initial complaint
would be billable. It always starts with "oh, by the way...". Do it
with time and materials and only switch to flat rate if desperate.

Incidentally, I suspect you'll run into a stupid problem. Many
customer can't remember or find their ISP passwords. As these are
inscribed in the router configuration, you may not be able to properly
setup the router. If you do this at night, many support organizations
are closed, so you can't easily obtain a new password. Of course,
after you're done, and the customer again forgets their password,
guess whom they're gonna call first?

Are you sure you want to do this?


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
AE6KS 831-336-2558

> Are you sure you want to do this?

Jeff, did anyone ever tell you you're no fun?!



David.

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 17:39:10 GMT, David Taylor <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>> Are you sure you want to do this?

>Jeff, did anyone ever tell you you're no fun?!

Yep. A former lady friend in bed. I was crushed. Also, the brats
that ocassionally infest my house when I'm coerced into playing baby
sitter. Once in a while, someone complains that I bore them to death
in a newsgroup or mailing list. It happens all the time, but I'm used
to it.

Most of my critics are a bit more colorful with their opinions of my
rants. Back in the days of the dot com era, I was doing evaluations
and sanity checks on business plans and product proposals for a VC. I
was really good at puncturing inflated projections and science fiction
products. The proponents of those plans often suggested that I was
rather less than entertaining. I'll admit that it was fun (especially
getting paid to do it).

I kinda wished I had the benfit of asking someone with experience when
I was getting started in various businesses. I made far too many
mistakes. Before embarking on any venture, I try to do as much
research as possible and solicit opinions from everyone. Once I
decide to do something, I then tended to ignore any subsequent
criticism and predictions of disaster. I got some of the best advice
from some of the strangest and non-obvious people.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
AE6KS 831-336-2558

You could just tell them about our free WIFI internet blocking software
at http://www.myWIFIzone.com but please don't charge them for that...

> You could just tell them about our free WIFI internet blocking software
> at http://www.myWIFIzone.com but please don't charge them for that...

What if you only have one laptop (or desktop) that isn't always on...?

Good point - in that case you need to rely on your router's MAC
filtering and look through its log files for intruders
Freeloaders get a captive portal when myWIFIzone is running - so at
least they know they aren't welcome.