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Antithesys t1_j1um4jl wrote

Reply to comment by Lithuim in ELI5 Why wasn’t wireless and Bluetooth technology widespread 20 years ago? by SwimmingOx

> There was no use case for a wireless router.

Well home wi-fi did exist. In 2002-ish my friend got an "antenna" that he attached to his laptop and we'd drive around the more affluent neighborhoods looking for wireless networks. No one who had wireless bothered to secure the network back then, and when we'd find one we'd go into the printer and make it print out various things ("help I'm stuck in the printer" or "YOU'RE FIRED"). Ah, youth.

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Lithuim t1_j1umf4c wrote

Fancy pants richers with their DSL modems.

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sterexx t1_j1uo18p wrote

My friend had an interesting job then at a major financial industry company. Lots of rollerblading through the offices with a radio receiver and a pair of scissors.

Around then wifi security was bad even if you did set a password (because it was probably still WEP*). Yet the convenience was too tempting for some employees. They’d bring in a router and plug it into their ethernet cable so they could have their own little rogue network in their cubicle.

So my friend would home in on these spots, cut the ethernet cable, and leave a note that they’ll be fired if caught doing this again

* Shoutout to my neighbors at the place I moved to in 2011 for still using WEP security. Our cable didn’t get set up for a week or two. Lifesaver

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