I keep picking up someones connection (uncrypted) can I find out who's it is, If it belongs to somebody else why does'nt my computer download their mail,

 

Finding out whose connection it is depends on a few things. They might have given the network a name which is obvious, for example "The Johnsons", so if you know who your neighbours are then it might make sense. I doubt they have done that, most people will just plug the wireless router in and use the default settings.

Depending on how tech savvy you are, you could possibly connect your computer to their network, work out the IP address of the wireless router, connect to it via a web browser and have a look at the settings to see if there is any owner information in there, in which case you could contact the owner. However, that's a little naughty to say the least, and they might not be too thankfull that you've been poking around in their router.

As for why your computer does not download their email, the main reason is that you only have an internet connection, you do not have all of their email account settings. You'd need to have those, and configure an email client to be able to get their email. If you had that info then you could do the same thing with your internet connection, it usually does not have any bearing on who/what you are using to connect to the internet.

 

Thank you Markus for that, I guess I'm not tech savvy because I do not know how to do it, but I understood what you said.

 

you could be a ******* and actually password protect his router

Log into it in IE with the Router IP and I bet the username is Admin and the password will be password

Change that and create a wireless passphase so he cant log on any more

Teach him to secure his wireless

 

See if u can connect as a network place and then view shared folders etc,
Not wanting to sound like a party pooper but it is illegal to use the connection without permission,
Some guy has got done for sitting outside places doing that.
atb
Brett

 

How would you find the ip address you are connected to

 

start > run > cmd

type ipconfig /all

the default gateway would be the IP address of the router