That’s awesome. I’d change my SSID to something like “GO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S BANDWIDTH, JACKOFF” if I was actually broadcasting my SSID, which I’m not.
Can you connect to him? Does he not use WEP at least?
Never turn down a chance to make people laugh. Even if they are trying to steal your wireless signal.
emm ess eff
09 Aug 05
In the past I’ve used our street address as our SSID in hopes that interested folks would knock on the door and offer (or be persuaded) to contribute to the connection fee.
Knock knock? Who’s there?
Dan Boland
09 Aug 05
My wireless network at home is called Network. I know, it’s groundbreaking. =) My coworkers and I use our iTunes shared names as our platform for being witty.
I named our network ‘Taniwha’ (a sea monster in Maori legend), but I forgot to mention it to my girlfriend.
Well, one day she happened to be working from home and began looking for a wireless signal to connect to. ‘Taniwha’ was the only network she could find and, being a kiwi, she new that a Taniwha was a monster so she decided she better not connect to it… just in case.
My neighbors over in apartment 106 have a wireless network called “APT106G - Free Beer!”
Given this is a college town, my guess is that they are truly advertising free beer, rather than letting me know that their network access is “free as in beer” (which it is).
I’ve often wondered if this has ever netted them any hot college girls.
Darrel
09 Aug 05
“I�ve often wondered if this has ever netted them any hot college girls.”
Generic names (I like “wifi”) are the most secure. If you put any identifying info in your SSID (such as Airport37) it makes it all that much easier for a potential hacker to find you and figure out where the signal is coming from. I always discourage people from using their family/company name or address.
But maybe I’m just paranoid.
Christopher
09 Aug 05
I use “Chopsticks”
Anonymous Coward
09 Aug 05
I’ll never understand the average citizens fear of “hackers.” People’s egos are too large. No one cares about you, folks. People aren’t outside your window trying to pick off your personal data over your airport connection. You aren’t as important as you think.
Anyways, there is an advantage to using your APT #…
I once knocked on this dude’s door and offered him $10 a month for his WIFI connection…
If he hadn’t named the signal with his apt #, I would have had to get a ISP and pay $30 or $45 a month…
we both win… that’s of course if you are willing to allow a total extranger to have access to your network.
Dan Boland
09 Aug 05
I�ll never understand the average citizens fear of �hackers.�
You don’t?
The average citizen isn’t anywhere near as tech-savvy as the majority of folks, say, who post here are. They lump things like identity theft together with the concept of hackers; to them, it’s one and the same. So yeah, their fear may be a little misguided, but I think it’s understandable nonetheless.
Besides, there’s nothing wrong with using a little common sense to protect yourself, like naming your network “Network” instead of something containing your address or other potentially identifying information. I don’t think that represents a fear at all; being cautious doesn’t equal being afraid.
And it has nothing to do with ego or thinking you’re important either — since when is your standing in the community (for instance) relative to your likelihood of getting your shit stolen? It’s not. Thieves, whether it’s a computer geek trolling for credit card numbers or a thug trying to jack your car, generally look for the easiest target. It doesn’t matter if you’re Bill Gates or Will Bates.
I have a 3com OfficeConnect a/b/g access point, which has a rather predictable “3com” SSID. There’s two simple reasons I’ve never changed the SSID to something more interesting. (Believe me, I want to.)
Every once in a while, it seems to go dormant. I get a signal, but there’s no connection to the network. This condition is quickly resolved by going downstairs and rebooting the access point. It doesn’t happen often, maybe once a week, but once a week is too often to have to reconfigure the WAP.
More importantly, I can’t. The access point has a web interface for setting things up. First thing it asks you for is a new IP address instead of the random one it picked. When you give it one, all of a sudden the web interface doesn’t work, because, of course, it’s got a new IP address. Except that it appears to simply not be on any IP address at all anymore. Darn. Time for another reboot.
It’s just simpler to leave the defaults instead of tearing my hair out all the time.
So… I don’t suppose you 37signals peeps could give 3com a few pointers on making unsucky hardware interfaces?
Anonymous Coward
09 Aug 05
emm ess eff: “Knock knock? Who�s there?”
Hopefully, not a big cock face yuppie.
Joey
09 Aug 05
since day one I knew what i was using as soon as airport turned:
I have a wifi node i my building called “Thor.” I think it’s my new downstairs neighbors.
I always find an open node very beneficial, since I can set up my desktop tower to saturate that uplink bandwidth while using my laptop to do other bandwidth-intensive tasks without any performance hit. For instance, I can work all day long using my wifi node, simultaneously uploading huge files to my server using the neighbor’s bandwidth. Why bother saturating my own bandwidth when I can just use the neighbors?
Marius Mathiesen
15 Aug 05
Ha-ha. I have a neighboor who keeps keeping me awake with really bad music. Earlier this year, he posted a sign in the hallway proposing that whoever owned the network named could have some cash for giving him access.
Now, normally, I’d be glad to share. But this being this was my not-so-favorite neighboor, I totally ignored his sign. After a couple of days he put up a new one. So I promptly renamed the network to “PissOff”, and he stopped putting up the signs.
32 comments so far (Jump to latest)
Jake 09 Aug 05
Man, I’m sorry, but that’s just plain wrong!
Travis Bell 09 Aug 05
Haha! That is awesome. Wish I had a cock face yuppie as a neighbor.
8500 09 Aug 05
So is he labeling himself or calling you a name in the strangest way possible?
Jough Dempsey 09 Aug 05
That’s awesome. I’d change my SSID to something like “GO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S BANDWIDTH, JACKOFF” if I was actually broadcasting my SSID, which I’m not.
Can you connect to him? Does he not use WEP at least?
Mark 09 Aug 05
I read somewhere recently that wireless network naming is the new way to get out political and other type statements.
Not sure that capability is best implemented in the example, however.
Dave Simon 09 Aug 05
Mine is called woodysroundup and all of my machines have names of Pixar characters.
My neighbors have the ever-creative “ACTIONTEC” and “Linksys” though.
Joshua Blankenship 09 Aug 05
I’m pretty sure ours is still “upyerbutt.”
Never turn down a chance to make people laugh. Even if they are trying to steal your wireless signal.
emm ess eff 09 Aug 05
In the past I’ve used our street address as our SSID in hopes that interested folks would knock on the door and offer (or be persuaded) to contribute to the connection fee.
Knock knock? Who’s there?
Dan Boland 09 Aug 05
My wireless network at home is called Network. I know, it’s groundbreaking. =) My coworkers and I use our iTunes shared names as our platform for being witty.
Patrick Gage 09 Aug 05
Mine is called Granny Smith, running yes, you guessed it an airport express. And my neighbors are Linksys and Linksys2; bursting with creativity.
Jason Landry 09 Aug 05
I named our network ‘Taniwha’ (a sea monster in Maori legend), but I forgot to mention it to my girlfriend.
Well, one day she happened to be working from home and began looking for a wireless signal to connect to. ‘Taniwha’ was the only network she could find and, being a kiwi, she new that a Taniwha was a monster so she decided she better not connect to it… just in case.
Wesley Walser 09 Aug 05
Next big article on the Internet: “Intelligent names for your wireless networks”
Jeff Croft 09 Aug 05
My neighbors over in apartment 106 have a wireless network called “APT106G - Free Beer!”
Given this is a college town, my guess is that they are truly advertising free beer, rather than letting me know that their network access is “free as in beer” (which it is).
I’ve often wondered if this has ever netted them any hot college girls.
Darrel 09 Aug 05
“I�ve often wondered if this has ever netted them any hot college girls.”
I hope it netted you some free beer.
Chris Johanesen 09 Aug 05
Generic names (I like “wifi”) are the most secure. If you put any identifying info in your SSID (such as Airport37) it makes it all that much easier for a potential hacker to find you and figure out where the signal is coming from. I always discourage people from using their family/company name or address.
But maybe I’m just paranoid.
Christopher 09 Aug 05
I use “Chopsticks”
Anonymous Coward 09 Aug 05
I’ll never understand the average citizens fear of “hackers.” People’s egos are too large. No one cares about you, folks. People aren’t outside your window trying to pick off your personal data over your airport connection. You aren’t as important as you think.
Alex Giron 09 Aug 05
haha that’s great…
Anyways, there is an advantage to using your APT #…
I once knocked on this dude’s door and offered him $10 a month for his WIFI connection…
If he hadn’t named the signal with his apt #, I would have had to get a ISP and pay $30 or $45 a month…
we both win… that’s of course if you are willing to allow a total extranger to have access to your network.
Dan Boland 09 Aug 05
I�ll never understand the average citizens fear of �hackers.�
You don’t?
The average citizen isn’t anywhere near as tech-savvy as the majority of folks, say, who post here are. They lump things like identity theft together with the concept of hackers; to them, it’s one and the same. So yeah, their fear may be a little misguided, but I think it’s understandable nonetheless.
Besides, there’s nothing wrong with using a little common sense to protect yourself, like naming your network “Network” instead of something containing your address or other potentially identifying information. I don’t think that represents a fear at all; being cautious doesn’t equal being afraid.
And it has nothing to do with ego or thinking you’re important either — since when is your standing in the community (for instance) relative to your likelihood of getting your shit stolen? It’s not. Thieves, whether it’s a computer geek trolling for credit card numbers or a thug trying to jack your car, generally look for the easiest target. It doesn’t matter if you’re Bill Gates or Will Bates.
Bob Aman 09 Aug 05
I have a 3com OfficeConnect a/b/g access point, which has a rather predictable “3com” SSID. There’s two simple reasons I’ve never changed the SSID to something more interesting. (Believe me, I want to.)
It’s just simpler to leave the defaults instead of tearing my hair out all the time.
So… I don’t suppose you 37signals peeps could give 3com a few pointers on making unsucky hardware interfaces?
Anonymous Coward 09 Aug 05
emm ess eff: “Knock knock? Who�s there?”
Hopefully, not a big cock face yuppie.
Joey 09 Aug 05
since day one I knew what i was using as soon as airport turned:
H8WINDOWS
Wendell 09 Aug 05
My SSID is “YouWillBeHacked”.
Jack 09 Aug 05
I like the idea of setting your address as your SSID. Seems so… neighbourly.
Afaik, my powerbook (on 10.4.2) won’t keychain any wifi station that has a hidden SSID so I still need to set one.
Adam 09 Aug 05
Hey, GET OFF MY WAN!
Alexander 10 Aug 05
haha that is wrong.
say hi to Cock Face Yuppie from me.
John 10 Aug 05
Some of airport SSID names that I have used are shadowfax, freeside, slyline, wintermute and Case.
Isaac 11 Aug 05
Ours used to be “We can see you from up here…”
Cameron Barrett 11 Aug 05
I have a wifi node i my building called “Thor.” I think it’s my new downstairs neighbors.
I always find an open node very beneficial, since I can set up my desktop tower to saturate that uplink bandwidth while using my laptop to do other bandwidth-intensive tasks without any performance hit. For instance, I can work all day long using my wifi node, simultaneously uploading huge files to my server using the neighbor’s bandwidth. Why bother saturating my own bandwidth when I can just use the neighbors?
Marius Mathiesen 15 Aug 05
Ha-ha. I have a neighboor who keeps keeping me awake with really bad music. Earlier this year, he posted a sign in the hallway proposing that whoever owned the network named could have some cash for giving him access.
Now, normally, I’d be glad to share. But this being this was my not-so-favorite neighboor, I totally ignored his sign. After a couple of days he put up a new one. So I promptly renamed the network to “PissOff”, and he stopped putting up the signs.
Patrick 09 Aug 06
Bobby,
Iget it now