SHARING IS CARING
It was a huge mistake sharing my Wi-Fi with the neighbour – she took advantage but I got sweet revenge
Sharing Wi-Fi with neighbours could land you in serious trouble - find out why in the video above
A KIND neighbour has revealed a Wi-Fi sharing horror story that will make people think twice about dishing out their password.
The unnamed person innocently let the lady next door have access to her Wi-Fi and quickly learnt to regret it.
1
They shared their horror story on Reddit and explained how their neighbour sucked up broadband speeds.
"[My neighbour] said she needed to do an assignment, and currently, their internet is not working. This was the first time she asked me," the user known as @isstanzi explained.
"As a fellow student, I understand what she meant. That's why I didn't hesitate to connect her phone."
Their young neighbour, thought to be around 18-years-old, said she would disconnect the Wi-Fi the next morning.
Read more on Wi-Fi
But it never happened.
"It was fine until three days later, she was still connected. My sister said to change the password, and I did," they continued.
"Then last week, she messaged me again, for the same reason that their WiFi is still not fixed.
"So I did without hesitation because it sounded like she needed to do something urgently."
Most read in Tech
Later that day the Redditor was shocked to discover a staggering four extra devices were now hooked up to their Wi-Fi, on top of their own five devices.
They suspect the woman's brother and her brother's friends had been given the password to connect their devices as well.
Is Someone Stealing Your Wi-Fi? How to Find Out and Stop Them
As such, the broadband was struggling to run the owner's own gadgets.
So, the Redditor finally decided enough is enough and blocked them.
But that wasn't the end of it.
"Then last night, she (our neighbour) asked me again to connect her phone to our WiFi," the Reddit user said.
"I said yes. But only because I could actually block her this time.
My sister said to change the password, and I did
"Somehow, I feel like I shouldn't block her because what if she really needs it for school stuff?
"I also understand why my sister is mad because she pays half of the WiFi bills.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
" I don't want to be really selfish about the WiFi password and s**t but it's already slow and having four more devices just really makes it hard for us to connect to the internet."
If you suspect someone is using your WiFi without permission, check out these tips.
WORST PASSWORDS TO USE ON YOUR ROUTER REVEALED
In 2019, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) compiled 20 of the most common passwords around.
Common passwords mean they're easy for cyber thieves to guess - so if you're using one of these on your router you might want to change it right now.
- 123456
- 123456789
- qwerty
- password
- 1111111
- 12345678
- abc123
- 1234567
- password1
- 12345
- 1234567890
- 123123
- 000000
- Iloveyou
- 1234
- 1q2w3e4r5t
- Qwertyuiop
- 123
- Monkey
- Dragon
Names, favourite football teams, musicians and fictional characters are also very popular and therefore easy to guess.
The best sort of password is long and easy to remember - so the NCSC suggests using three random words strung together.
Of course, you shouldn't recycle passwords on various platforms or devices either. Should a hacker gain access to one they could then go onto access your other accounts.
So use a password manager to securely keep track of them all - Google Chrome and Safari can store these for you.
Topics