JEDDAH, 5 April 2008 — As wireless Internet (WiFi) networks spread in Saudi Arabia so too do the freeloaders. “Why pay for the Internet while I can get it for free?” said Asim D., a 17-year-old Saudi boy living in Al-Safa district.
Asim and his friends often spend time in the street with their laptops hopping onto open Wifi connections in the neighborhood. Apparently many home subscribers haven’t figured out how to secure their connections. Finding these clueless users has become a kind of pastime for youngsters in some Jeddah neighborhoods. The goal: to identify not only all the open Wifi connections in the area, but also to find the fastest, most dependable connections.
“Guys in the area always fight over one spot where Internet speed is 1MB,” Asim said, referring to a more expensive, high-speed Internet connection.
The more people connect to a particular network, the slower the network becomes. This of course can cause the paid subscribers headaches. If they find that their network is particularly slow, they might peek outside to see if any neighborhood kids are hanging around with laptops.
“The early bird gets the worm,” Asim said explaining how these young guys share the locations. “Whoever comes first to the location of a fast signal gets to stay.”
Hamoud Ali, a 20-year-old Saudi university student, said that he doesn’t even need to go out in the street to look for a loose signal. “I have three different within the comfort of my bedroom,” he said. “Why should I waste money on a monthly subscription?”
Abdulmuhsin Arishi, a Saudi government employee in his late 20s, said that he knew nothing about securing his Internet signal until he called the service provider complaining about how slow the connection was.
“I had to go to a computer shop and pay SR20 to secure my network, I would have done it at home but my English is not good enough to understand the instructions,” he said adding that his connection regained its speed after it was secured.
But even securing a wireless network isn’t foolproof. Many people secure their networks by simply turning on their routers’ default security settings. With a little Web research, anyone trying to crack these passwords can find lists of router brands with their corresponding default password settings.
