Sharing a Wireless Connection
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about
If you have a question, send it to me at
mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg's Mailbox.
Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can't routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.
Q: We live in an apartment in New York City and we have only a dial-up Internet connection. We have recently detected a perfectly good wireless signal in the building transmitting a broadband connection, and it works fine for us. Is it OK for us to use this connection? Does it degrade the performance of the connection for the owner of the wireless network? Are we doing something wrong by using it?
A: As wireless Wi-Fi networks spread, and bleed through the walls into neighboring apartments and houses, this is becoming an important practical and ethical question. It isn't illegal to ride on the neighbor's signal, as far as I know, but that doesn't make it OK.
Some would argue that, if the owner of the Wi-Fi network has left it unprotected by a password, he or she is deliberately, or at least implicitly, welcoming others to use it. And, in most cases of typical use, you wouldn't be degrading the performance of the network for its owner, since Wi-Fi can handle multiple users doing normal tasks and still maintain network speeds that exceed the speed of the incoming broadband connection.
But I think there's something dishonorable and unethical about free-riding on a costly service for which your neighbor is paying. The fact that the neighbor has left the Wi-Fi network open and insecure is more likely to reflect a lack of technical skills than a policy of wanting others to use it.
On a practical level, doing this might indeed degrade his or her connection speed, if you do untypical things, like uploading lots of large files or constantly watching online videos. And you might gain access to the neighbor's private files, if you are so inclined and know what you're doing. This invasion of privacy might even occur unwittingly.
So, my advice is to treat this in an honest and neighborly fashion, as you would any other issue where shared property is involved. Seek out the neighbor and ask if it's OK to use the wireless signal. You might even offer to pay something to use it. That way, your conscience will be clear and you'll know for sure what his or her attitude is about your using the signal.
Q: My 10-year-old daughter needs a laptop to support her at school because she has such poor handwriting. We currently have an iMac at home with OS X, and she loves to use it to do PowerPoint and burn CDs and go online. Any recommendations?
A: Since she's such an avid Mac user, I'd buy her a basic, relatively inexpensive Mac laptop. My suggestion is that you get the iBook with a 12-inch screen, for $1,099, plus Microsoft Office for the Mac, Student & Teacher edition, which includes PowerPoint and costs $149. This machine can burn CDs, go online with ease, and do lots more. And it has good battery life.
Q: Two e-mail messages were returned to me because they couldn't be delivered due to viruses they contained. But I didn't send these messages. Someone has been using my e-mail address. An antivirus scan didn't show anything wrong. How can I stop this?
A: This isn't uncommon, and is just another burden and hassle that owners of Windows PCs must now endure due to the mendacity of the virus writers and the lack of security in Microsoft's operating system and programs.
It's probably due to a virus that infected somebody else's computer with an address book containing your address. Some viruses randomly select an entry in the address book of an infected machine and use that as the sending address for blasting out large numbers of virus-laden e-mail. When these viruses are detected at the receiving end, the computers there often send you a nondelivery message, because the message appears to have come from you.
I know of nothing you can do, short of hunting down the creeps who wrote the virus or insisting that everyone who has you in his or her address book do a better job of blocking viruses. If I had a solution, I'd use it myself, since my own address has been hijacked in this very manner, via one of the numerous computers where I am in the address book.
用邻居的无线网络上网
在我们大多数人所拥有的大型电器中，再没有什么比个人电脑更令人费解、更变幻莫测的了。每个人或许都有些关于电脑的问题，而《莫博士信箱》将为您提供帮助。
以下是我就最近读者提出的一些电脑问题所做的解答。为了便于阅读，我对问题稍微进行了一些编辑和重述。本周，'莫博士信箱'栏目将要解答的问题包括：共用无线网络上网、病毒邮件等问题。
问：我家住在纽约市的一所公寓里，只是通过拨号登陆互联网。最近，我们在这座大厦里检测到清晰的无线信号，能使我们通过宽带连接互联网，效果很好。那么，我们用这种方式上网合适吗？这会降低无线网络户主的上网效果吗？我们这样用无线网络是不是做错了？
答：随著Wi-Fi无线网络的普及，以及无线信号向邻近房屋的漫溢，你所说的问题已经日益成为一个严重的现实问题和道德问题。据我目前所知，利用邻居的无线信号上网并不违法，但这并不意味著它是可行的。
有些人可能会辩解说，如果无线网络的户主没有设定密码加以保护，那么，他/她就是有意允许别人使用无线网络，至少是种暗示。另外，在大多数常见的使用情况下，你不会影响无线网络户主的上网效果，因为Wi-Fi无线网络能够在多名用户同时使用时支持一般的工作，并且能维持网络的速度，使之领先接入式宽带网络的速度。
但我认为无偿地使用你的邻居付帐的有偿服务有些卑鄙和不道德。你的邻居没有设定密码保护Wi-Fi无线网络，使之处于不安全的状态，更有可能是因为他/她缺乏使用技巧，而不太可能是希望别人也来使用它。
从实际情况来看，如果你进行一些非常规的操作，比如上传大量的庞大文件，或者经常性地在线观看视频，那么，你的操作的确会降低无线网络户主的上网速度。另外，如果你有兴趣，并且知道自己在做什么的话，你也有可能得到偷看邻居私人文件的机会。这种对别人隐私权的侵犯甚至会在无意中发生。
因此，我建议你用一种诚实和友善的方式处理这个问题，如你在与别人共同居住时处理其他问题的方式一样。把你的邻居约出来，并询问自己能否使用他/她的无线信号。你甚至可以提出自己付一点费用来使用他/她的无线网络。这样，你的良心就会安宁，你也能确切地知道他/她对你使用无线网络的真实态度了。
问：我10岁的女儿需要一台笔记本电脑，帮助她上学，因为她的书法很糟糕。现在我们家里有一台装备OSX系统的 iMac机，我女儿很喜欢用这台机器做PowerPoint文件、刻录CD和上网，你有什么好的建议吗？
答：既然她对Mac机这么青睐的话，要是我，会给她买一台相对便宜的Mac笔记本电脑。我的建议是：你花1,099美元购买一台12英寸显示屏的iBook笔记本电脑，里面附带Mac机使用的Microsoft Office教学版。该软件售价是149美元，里面含有PowerPoint软件。这款笔记本电脑能刻录CD和随意上网，还能做其他很多事情。它的电池寿命也很长。
问：我的邮箱里收到两封退回来的电子邮件，因为它们包含病毒无法被投送。但我并没有发送过这些邮件。有人一直在使用我的邮件地址。反病毒扫描软件也查不出任何问题。我怎么才能阻止这种情况的出现？
答：这种情况并不罕见，只是Windows个人电脑用户现在必须面对的又一个头疼问题而已，根源在于病毒制造者的阴险，以及微软的操作系统和程序缺乏安全性。
情况很可能是：某人的电脑感染了病毒，而他的电脑中地址薄里有你的邮件地址。有些病毒会任意地选择感染病毒的地址薄里的某个地址，以之作为发送大量包含病毒的电子邮件的发送人。当这些邮件中的病毒在接收端被检测出来后，那台电脑通常会发给你一封'发送失败'的邮件，因为看上去那些病毒邮件是你发出来的。
据我所知，你对此无能为力，根本无法追踪那个制造病毒的人，也无法要求在地址薄里有你邮件地址的每个人更好地防范病毒。如果我有什么解决办法的话，我肯定会自己先用，因为我自己的邮件地址也曾经被这种方式所盗用，通过地址薄里有我邮件地址的众多电脑中的某一台为我制造麻烦。
