Neighbour's son asking to use our wifi

Seems a bit odd. Don't your neighbours have it? YANBU, it seems to me.

The answer is 'no'. He can use his mobile phone, pay for his parents to have it or go elsewhere. I would never give anyone access to my wifi unless it was friends and family staying with me.

nevesnan, that sounds like a blooming cheek to me! He could carry out illegal actions on the internet and it could get traced back to you. Why should you pay for his internet access?

Definitely, You Are Not Being Unreasonable.

I have allowed next door’s adult granddaughter use ours when she was staying with her grandparents. They didn’t have Broadband. She promised she wasn’t going to use it a lot and nothing that would affect our speed when we were online and we have unlimited usage anyway. It was fine.
Maybe it would have thawed relations with next door if you’d let him. He probably wouldn’t have asked unless there was a special reason.

She has had every type of wifi but wont pay the bills so they cut her off. I was just a bit worried if he did anything illegal it would come back on us. @ SpringyChicken don't really want to thaw relations they are the constant borrowing cheeky type. We have had a lot of problems with their antisocial behaviour, which makes him asking for our wifi password a bit suspect.

thanks everyone for your advice

No you are not being unreasonable nevesnan If you are not on friendly terms with your neighbours it seems a bit rude of the son to even ask.. There are public places where you can access the internet, cafes, libraries etc.

You are not unreasonable & could have put yourself at risk if you'd allowed that.

Sounds very unusual. I think I would have asked was it an emergency. If not then no.

You were definitely right to say no, like you say if they are the constant borrowing cheeky type you are better off without that in your life. I used to have neighbours like that many years ago, they borrowed our lawnmower once for their postage stamp front lawn and instead of cleaning it off and bringing it back after use, they hung it in their shed. Three weeks later I had to go and ask them for it and there was no thanks or apology or anything, that was the last straw from a long line of annoyance. I told him there and then not to ask for anything else ever again.

My neighbour uses my wifi but we get along.

My wifi doesnt reach parts of my house that their wifi reaches and vica versa.

Thank you all for your replies. If they ask again I will just tell them again that we have no wifi. They have only lived there for 5 years but have been a bit of a pain since moving in. I didn't know people borrowed other peoples wifi . You learn something new every day I suppose.

I dont know why but I cant get my own wifi to work all over my upstairs but theirs reaches all of my upstairs room. And next doors wifi is patchy in their own house but mine covers their house

I trust them to mind my kids so wifi is no big deal. If we werent friendly: no way!

We have always let babysitters have our wifi password

@looby, that's exactly it, borrowing lots of items but you have to ask for them back and often they cant find it, so you never get it back. Also loud music all hours of the night.

We tend to say we don't have any of whatever they want to borrow, but they still try.

I’m happy to allow any friends and family access to my wifi when they are in my house. However, you have to bear in mind that cookies pick up what is being viewed, and you may be bombarded with adverts for things you aren’t interested in. When a friend was staying with me for a few days, I kept getting pop up adverts for Marks & Spencer celebration cakes. Sure enough, on my birthday I received an M&S cake so it wasn’t a surprise !

Nevesnan he can see your WiFi when he tries to connect, all WiFi locations available in the area come up. I wouldn't have let him use it either, I think he had a nerve asking.

I'd tell him to go to the local library if he wants to use the Internet. What a nerve to ask for yours !

Looby what a cheek!
Its awful having ti tell lies or make excuses. People shouldnt ask.

There are enough 'hot spot' all over the place, and for free, without anyone needing to use your private one.

They'd need your wifi password and could well use a lot of your data. So unless you are prepared to subsidise a user, such as a grandchild, the answer has to be a very firm 'no'.

By the way, your neighbours' son will have been able to see you DO have wifi, all the local ones pop up when you're looking for a connection (or they certainly do here and I doubt it's any different in UK).

It’s a pity that you lied to him as he will be able to see that you have WiFi and which company supplies it.

Although all the local wifi signals show up when someone tries to make a new connection there's no way of knowing for sure where each of the domestic signals is coming from, especially in an urban location.

I can see three other signals but I don't know which houses they're from and there are more than three houses nearby.

Not unreasonable at all!
We host volunteers who have access to our very poor WiFi.
Before the days of WiFi, they would ask if they could use my broadband computer to download their photos or print their boarding passes .
I reluctantly agreed but would have to spend ages afterwards converting it back to English or deleting thousands of pictures which were blocking the pc. because I'm not techie
At least now they all have phones and tablets and data.
I even say it's like asking to borrow my toothbrush!!
I send them to the library which offers a free service.
Don't worry that you fibbed. Plead ignorance and say you don't have WiFi to share if he asks again.

I don't know why it's necessary to lie about it. Tell the person involved that for reasons of security you do not share your WiFi.

it would be absolute madness to give your wifi password to the neighbours son, as previously said, if he's illegally downloading movies etc your ISP provider will be writing to you in no uncertain terms, plus he could also download porn. Also do you not think he would pass the information on to your neighbours? before you know it all and sundry will have access to your wifi