Can someone help me (in words if one syllable)

They shouldn't have asked and you shouldn't be worried about saying "no". Depending on where you live if there is any commercial organisation like a cafe or shop close by they could log into their wi-fi and use that. They should know how. If you aren't happy just saying "no" you could use the old lady "I don't do technology" excuse or a cop out I always like to use "My DS (DD) has advised me not to"

Marydoll

What about saying that you have checked with your internet provider and it's a definite No?
I'm positive that's what they would advise anyway.
That's a simple solution, without offending anyone.

I certainly wouldn't have the nerve to ask in the first place.

I was thinking what Marydoll says before I read her answer . I agree with her. Who knows what they might watch, my GS is a whizz on computers his mum caught him on the dark web in the middle of the night and it would all be on the records of your account if someone did this. You would also have to put child security on your account

they can get a dongle.
it's not fair to guilt trip you with talk of children deprived over xmas.
stand firm. begin the way you mean to go on.
you might think they are nice, and maybe they are, but this has cheeky pluckery written all over it.

BlueBelle

How do you change the password Baggs it comes with the modem

No I m not comfortable with it at all but I m also finding it very hard to refuse although I think I ll just say tomorrow that I ve spoken to my provider and they ve said that with my package I wouldn’t be able to

Yes, I'd do that, Bluebelle. Honestly, I'd be worried all the time as its techie beyond me. Just say the providers dont allow piggy backing or whatever its called.

But yes to the flowers and welcome card.

They shouldn't have asked imo. Maybe it would be fair if you were young and clearly techie and could be reasonably expected to risk assess

I would say no sorry.
I have tenants in my granny flat granny isn't there
A previous man asked for our password and immediately our connection was much slower and would you believe it , he complained!

He was watching loud violent movies on his screen.
I told him the rent did not include WiFi so to get his own which he did.
The present tenant has never asked.

Have they mentioned about the Wi-Fi on more than one occasion BB. Because if they have only asked once I wouldn’t say anything to them until they brought it up again (if they do).

Yes, I too would check with the providers. Pretty sure of their response though. Also 'short' periods of time sometimes elongate I intentionally.

In addition to the security issues, Mr Baggs makes a very good point.

Internet speeds are getting faster and faster. I recently negotiated a cheaper broadband deal (£14.99 a month including landline) because I don't need more than 50Mbps to power my one smart HDTV, laptop and phone.

Start sharing a wi-fi with this relatively slow speed with neighbours streaming Christmas television on 4KTVs, adults and children running umpteen other smart devices; gaming, big downloads etc and suddenly BlueBelle may not have sufficient bandwidth to run her own devices. Suddenly that film you wanted to stream on Netflix keeps freezing because the neighbours are using up all the bandwidth. See the chart attached.

Do know what speed you get BlueBelle? You can check it here:

www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk

Here’s a link to a Which magazine article on how to change your password:

computing.which.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/207057535-How-to-change-your-wireless-router-password

I think you've found the solution, BB. Good luck.

Re password changing, I guess you have an account with whoever provides your wi-fi. It'll be a case of logging on to your account and changing it there.

That’s a good get out. I think you must be very careful.

How do you change the password Baggs it comes with the modem

No I m not comfortable with it at all but I m also finding it very hard to refuse although I think I ll just say tomorrow that I ve spoken to my provider and they ve said that with my package I wouldn’t be able to

Just to say, when I was homeless and sofa surfing a couple of years ago, I did everything on my phone.

I m sure they’ve got mobile phones they can use. No need to use yours.

MrB said that if he was asked for this favour, he would change the password before telling them it and then change it again when the period they were using it was over.

He also spoke about broadband speeds for streaming videos, etc.

They should never have asked Bluebelle and saying no doesn't make you a bad neighbour.
Just say you wouldn't be comfortable with it security wise. They'll survive!
It's not your problem.

Not sure what swithering means marydoll but my first thought was no then I thought well it can’t do any harm and they offered to pay me for the any inconvenience and now you have all brought things up I hadn’t thought of up into my brain it looks like I ll need to say no for my own safety but I’m going to feel awful especially as the parents have been very kind to me in all the upheaval that has been going on with the former nightmare tenants

She had booked her provider but they can’t do it till after Christmas and as she has kids she wanted WiFi over the holiday period I can understand that too

I feel awful now a box of chocs isn’t going to make up for kids without Wi-Fi I can imagine how my grandkids would be
Oh dear

An extreme case scenario, ridiculous and highly unlikely, but let's imagine a visiting family member of your neighbours is given your password by them and they download child pornography. It will be tagged to your IP address. How would you get out of that?

You just don't know, what secrets people hide.
A member of our local community did just that, he was the most unlikely criminal.

I cannot believe, you are still swithering BB

x-posts, biglouis 🙂

And yes, if our wi-fi goes down we can use 4G (or whatever higher G MrB has) on our mobiles.

I think it's rather a cheeky request they've made.

I would consider it an incredible cheek if anyone asked me for my password, especially as I run a business and bank online. I dont even give neighbours my phone number! I would tell them that my nephew handles all the techy stuff and I have no idea what the password is.

It is unlikely that your neighbours will make a difference, so long as they just want to watch TV and make festive phone calls

Don't have a telly but when I did you definitely didn't need wi-fi to watch it, and they definitely should use their mobiles to make festive phone calls.

BlueBelle

Thanks I was kinda of thinking those things but just not sure what I might be missing out I ll ring my provider tomorrow and take their advice
I ve never been a bad neighbour Doodlebug even when I had the family of hell next door to me I still kept on good terms with them

I wasn't suggesting you would be . I just meant that for no cost to you you could do them a favour, and it would put you on good terms from the start.

What about saying that you have checked with your internet provider and it's a definite No?
I'm positive that's what they would advise anyway.
That's a simple solution, without offending anyone.

I certainly wouldn't have the nerve to ask in the first place.

If I remember correctly, posted in a thread about potentially loosing power during planned shut-downs --- if a mobile is available it can be used for internet related activities. Made no sense to me, no mobile any longer, but mobile owners all seemed to agree and be purchasing some 'backup' power sources for their mobiles. Maybe this is an answer?

In all fairness to the neighbours they may well have tried to get wi-fi before moving in. My friend moved recently and despite having ordered the wi-fi for her move in date BT didn't get it together for another few weeks!
I would say no to the wi-fi as there are other options they can pursue but I would definitely have a box of chocolates or some flowers and a 'Welcome to your new home' card to leave out for them which shows that whilst you are not open to sharing your wi-fi you want to be friendly. Upstairs from me is rented out and I make a point of doing this when new people move in. It works well.

To what others have already said, I would add this from:

medium.com/tech-ramblings/concerned-about-privacy-the-surprising-risks-of-sharing-your-network-4b54e091e901

What’s the Risk?

There are three basic risks:

If you have computers that share files or a printer among themselves, your neighbour may be able to access them.

There’s a tiny risk that depending on how your router routes traffic that your neighbour may be able to “see” that traffic. I call it tiny because routers typically do not route traffic to computers not involved in the conversation.

If your neighbour’s computer becomes infected with malware it may propagate to your machines.

To be honest, it’s the last one that scares me the most. The first two are all about your neighbour’s intention, which in most cases is probably honest and above board and is at least something you can attempt to judge. The later, however, involves your neighbour’s ability to keep their own system free of malicious software. That’s a risk I’d be reluctant to take even with the best of intentions.

My biggest worry would be if the family are into online gaming which many are but we all know that malware can come from any number of sources, even an innocent looking email attachment that someone opens without thinking.

This from security experts Kaspersky:

www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/top-10-online-gaming-risks

My advice is to say no and explain why. It may well be that they aren't very knowedgeable themselves about online security. A neighbourly act could unwittingly put your own online security at risk.