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Liabilities from opening up guest access to my router for a neighbor

alkemyst

alkemyst

No Lifer
I have a neighbor that has fallen on rough times, they have had to cancel cable and along with it their internet access.

I was thinking of opening up guest access on my e4200 router but never tried this nor know any liabilities I may encounter. She has a 15 year old and a 21 year old daughter that live with her.
 
If you trust them let them in. You can always cut them off later when they forget to mow your lawn - wash your car - ect....
 
Most consumer-grade connections will only have a single public IP address, and consumer-grade routers don't have extensive logging facilities that would give you the ability to track which user on your private network is connecting to what. If you ran into some type of legal issue as a result of your neighbors' activities (e.g., unauthorized file sharing), you would have a difficult time proving that it wasn't you.

IANAL
 
The guest account in the E4200 can be configured Not to be able to Access the main Network.


😎
 
Other than breaking the terms of your service agreement with your provider and getting nailed for child porn or hacking, you're fine.

Depends on how much you trust them and explain what they can and MUST not do. Maybe even have them sign something about "shall not perform any illegal activity or content along with abuse".

The 15 year old sending, web camming or posting nude pictures is on YOUR ass.

The generous side of me says yes, the liability side of me says no. No good deed goes unpunished.
 
theevilsharpie said:
Most consumer-grade connections will only have a single public IP address, and consumer-grade routers don't have extensive logging facilities that would give you the ability to track which user on your private network is connecting to what. If you ran into some type of legal issue as a result of your neighbors' activities (e.g., unauthorized file sharing), you would have a difficult time proving that it wasn't you.

IANAL
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have to prove it wasn't you. They have to prove it was you.
 
pcgeek11 said:
You shouldn't have to prove it wasn't you. They have to prove it was you.
Click to expand...

They'll have your IP address, which your ISP will trace back to you. Barring multiple public IPs or some type of further logging on your behalf deflecting responsibility, the buck will stop with you.
 
JackMDS said:
The guest account in the E4200 can be configured Not to be able to Access the main Network.


😎
Click to expand...
I don't think that is his worry, but finding himself trussed up in the middle of his living room floor like a christmas goose while the "peeve squad" from the local LEO's calls him a sick bastard as they carry all his computers out as evidence. Rare, but it happens.

But no harm, no foul, they will figure out he is innocent, after trashing his computers, and a couple of free nights lodging with other fine citizens of the area, and loosing his job, reputation and standing in the community. Nothing like a mug shot on the evening news with tagline "child porn sicko" arrested, to create so new challenges for him.

If you "kinda" trust them, setup the router DNS to provide a 3rd party DNS IP's as part of DHCP, and then subscribe (free) to OpenDNS and set your account to block access to any type of site you choose. P2P being one I would definitely block.
 
Since the Terms of Service assume only one user (you), anything that travels through your external address belongs to you, and you are legally liable. You are also financially responsible for any bandwidth overage charges.

You'll get a warning if discovered, and chances are good you'll end up paying for two connections (from the time your service was activated) to settle out of court.

It's a bad idea. With extremely rare exception, your relationship with your neighbor will suffer, your speed & efficiency will suffer, and when you decide to cut 'em off, you'll feel like the Bad Guy.
 
I would say depends on the routers capabilities. if I could limit bandwith and set a daily/weekly limit for guest network and the router has usable logging capabilities, then I think I would consider to give access else no way.

But even if it meets those goals, do you really want to spend time searching the logs? Do you tell her, that you will shut it down if they do "things you don't like". I sure would not give it for free as said before. For work or something like 5$-10$ a month.
 
ScottMac said:
You'll get a warning if discovered, and chances are good you'll end up paying for two connections (from the time your service was activated) to settle out of court.
Click to expand...

Chances are that's not going to be the case. Everything would be PATted out of that router and you can't readily distinguish what's what.

It's not as though ISPs are watching you game all day and all of a sudden see some spike in youtube traffic and assume someone else is there. Not to mention the fact that it's unreasonable for an ISP to assume that there's only one single device behind their modem, whether owned by the customer or not. While the TOS may explicitly say that only your devices may exist on your network, proving that something is or isn't yours would be somewhat time consuming and not something the ISP may do unless pressured from someone else...RIAA, MPAA, FBI, etc...

OP...while it's nice to be nice, if you're at all concerned about it, forget it.
 
The problem I am finding is I want my guest account to use something like OpenDNS, but I want my main network on standard DNS.

I can add URLs that are blocked in my e4200 management screens based on devices, but that can be violated as it only locks down devices I specify.
 
ScottMac said:
Since the Terms of Service assume only one user (you), anything that travels through your external address belongs to you, and you are legally liable.
Click to expand...

With all due respect, the internet provider's TOS agreement is not law. The liability questions that are raised due to a shared internet connection (shared legally or otherwise), are very much a "grey area" and cannot be conveniently summarized in a blanket statement such as yours.

Below is a nice summary of some statue and case law that governs these situations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_file_sharing

While violating the agreement with your internet provider and sharing your connection with a neighbor is certainly a Bad Idea(tm), it does not AUTOMATICALLY mean that you assume all legal liability for everything that your neighbor is doing with that connection.

Good luck.
 
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Everyone is pretty much right in what they have said. Sharing internet like that does violate TOS but your ISP isn't going to notice or care so I wouldn't worry about that. Only possibility is if they are doing anything illegal. Truthfully though most ISPs only give you warnings for file sharing, etc. It's only if it's something major like child porn or a crack down from someone in the entertainment industry that it can become a legal problem. Your router sounds kind of limited. If you trust them then I figure you probably can. Might just want to talk with them and be upfront about what they can do and cannot do. At the very least could block well known torrenting sites to their PCs through your router. If you really don’t trust them then you probably shouldn’t do it. Honestly though you will probably be fine.
 
Depending on the ISP it's sometime's a no-no. Albeit, I do connection sharing from my DSL line while I use my cable line for most in home stuff.

Captive portal + them having to click 'I agree' to my TOS + logging of each connection = no liability for me.
 
Jimmah said:
Depending on the ISP it's sometime's a no-no. Albeit, I do connection sharing from my DSL line while I use my cable line for most in home stuff.

Captive portal + them having to click 'I agree' to my TOS + logging of each connection = no liability for me.
Click to expand...

I believe you're wrong (at least in the USA, noticing you're Canadian). Since you do not own the connection, and the rights are not assignable, per most TOS agreements, you have no legal standing to give the permission, captive portal + "I Agree" or not. It's like you permitting a neighbor to borrow another neighbor's car without their knowledge (or permission to give permission).
 
beginner99 said:
I would say depends on the routers capabilities. if I could limit bandwith and set a daily/weekly limit for guest network and the router has usable logging capabilities, then I think I would consider to give access else no way.

But even if it meets those goals, do you really want to spend time searching the logs? Do you tell her, that you will shut it down if they do "things you don't like". I sure would not give it for free as said before. For work or something like 5$-10$ a month.
Click to expand...
E4200 is capable of providing a guest account access, and keeping it separate from the rest of the local computers.

The problems is that anything they do, will track back only to the IP provided to the router, and if they are into something like kiddy porn, it comes back on the subscriber.
 
MtnMan said:
E4200 is capable of providing a guest account access, and keeping it separate from the rest of the local computers.

The problems is that anything they do, will track back only to the IP provided to the router, and if they are into something like kiddy porn, it comes back on the subscriber.
Click to expand...

I wish you could setup a separate DNS and then I could lock it down. In the end, this is going to be too much overhead to do.

If it was just the lady, I wouldn't care, but she has teenagers and their friends over and that's the main issues.
 
theevilsharpie said:
They'll have your IP address, which your ISP will trace back to you. Barring multiple public IPs or some type of further logging on your behalf deflecting responsibility, the buck will stop with you.
Click to expand...

How many people live in the house? Hard to nail it down to an individual. Cases have been beaten in court over this very thing.
 
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