Good (or Unwitting) Neighbors Make for Good Internet Access

Several of the major cable and phone companies that provide high- speed wired connections to the Internet say customers are violating their service agreements — and perhaps breaking the law — by letting others outside a given household piggyback using 802.11.

"Anyone who is using it that way would basically be stealing," a spokesman for Time Warner Cable said of those who patch into its Road Runner cable modem service. "It's the same thing as cable theft."