My neighbor asked for my internet passcode...wth? | Yakezie Reader Insights | Yakezie Forums

So what would you do: Brand new neighbors, only lived there for about 3 months and asked my husband if they could have the guest password to use our internet.  My husband said he didn't know where it was because he was so shocked and appalled that the question was asked in the first place. A few days later the young lady screamed to my husband "give me your password" as he was biking away, he pretended he didn't here her!  We don't even know these people, we don't want to give them our pass code as we can see that they can easily afford the cigarettes they smoke. What's the best way to be cordial and handle the situation.  What would you do?

Let the truth be out, you are not comfortable in sharing your connection with them. Its personal thing and should remain personal.

Really?  They are asking if they can share your internet for free?!?  Umm, no.

If you need to lie tell them your service is already as slow as a snail already.

Or you could just ask them why they need it. Straight up ask why they don't have internet on their own.  If they claim they can't afford it point them to the nearest library or Starbucks.

Post edited 8:41 am – September 4, 2012 by Michelle (Making Sense of Cents)

NurseFrugal said:

So what would you do: Brand new neighbors, only lived there for about 3 months and asked my husband if they could have the guest password to use our internet.  My husband said he didn't know where it was because he was so shocked and appalled that the question was asked in the first place. A few days later the young lady screamed to my husband "give me your password" as he was biking away, he pretended he didn't here her!  We don't even know these people, we don't want to give them our pass code as we can see that they can easily afford the cigarettes they smoke. What's the best way to be cordial and handle the situation.  What would you do?

Say that you have slow internet and if you shared your password, it would be impossible to get online.

Do not share with them! Someone in my city was caught stealing internet and they found 3,000 child porn pictures on the guys computer. However, the person who he was stealing internet from was arrested first. He was arrested in front of his whole neighborhood and everyone thought it was him.

Eric – NarrowBridge.net said:

Ask them to pay for half of your internet!

Too nice!  Ask for 75%, paid a year in advance.

I agree that you should tell them the truth: you're not comfortable sharing your internet service with anyone. Otherwise if you come up with excuses, they will probably keep hounding you over and over again. Telling them "no" should save you the headache of this.

They should at least have the decency to get to know you first and offer something in return, such as half the cost, or share something they pay for with you. I wouldn't be too worried about offending these people, in fact I would be happy for them to stop speaking with me! But it's surprising how people like this quickly get over things like this – afterall they will probably need something else from you in the future!

I think it's absurd to ask someone you barely know for your internet password.  There are plenty of free places to access the internet, like the local library.  Why don't they just run an extension cord through your kitchen window and tap into your electricity too?

He*l to the no! Would they like to steal your cable too? Perhaps they'd like a key to your house so they can eat from your fridge when they get hungry? Maybe they wanted the shirt that you're currently wearing as well?

I'd tell them that you're sorry but the way you use your internet and the bandwidth you have would make sharing the connection useless for both parties because it would make downloading too slow. And then tell them where the local library is, free internet there!

And if they argue, well, just walk away. Like someone said above, sounds like you're going to have your hands full with these people — good luck! Actually , I posted not long ago about dealing with my neighbors from hell, lol, good luck, that's all I can say, good luck. :-)

Post edited 5:26 am – September 12, 2012 by michael @ financial ramblings

This is a good argument in favor of not broadcasting the SSID (wifi network name). Sure, people can still sniff it out, but it keeps it out of sight of casual (would be) abusers. Most modern routers allow you to shut this off.

In addition: If you're not already doing so, I would suggest enabling WPA2 encryption (vs. WEP or WPA), using a long/strong (yet easy to remember) encryption key, likewise increasing the strength of the admin password, and also enabling MAC address filtering.

None of these things are failsafe, but you might as well make it as inconvenient as possible to access your network without your permission. This is especially true given that your new neighbors sound a little "off" and might react negatively to you refusing them access.