I have a bit of a dilemma right now. I am sitting at my house writing this blog and will be able to post it as soon as I'm done with it.
I have been praying for the Lord to help me afford the Internet so that I don't have to drive a half hour into town in order to post my blogs, but it hasn't happened yet. It's not going to stop me if I don't get it, but it would sure make it easier since I do most of my writing in the evening.
This evening as I started my computer to write, it automatically connected to a very weak, yet present, wi-fi in my area. For those of you who don't know, I live in the country, but there are a fair number of homes here. Now, I don't know much about anything technical, so I'm not sure if it is from a local business (the closest on being almost a mile away), or from a personal residence. I would statistically go with the personal residence theory, but have no idea how to find out. If that is the case, is it ethical, as a Christian, to use it if there is no password protection. Hmm. Probably not, huh?
So here I sit, typing my fingers off before it disappears. Not a good sign that it's the right thing, is it? What do you do in these situations? When you are given something you have been praying for, yet it comes through a grey area, what do you do? I've been praying for months now and the cheapest I've found for us is about $60 a month in our area. Ouch. Not possible yet.
I'm going to be doing a lot of praying about this...
...and will most likely be posting from yet another coffee shop where I don't drink coffee.
When I was in the process of moving from Jackson to Memphis, and then from Memphis to Murfreesboro, we picked up wi-fi signals at both houses before ordering the Internet. They were really weak signals, though, so Tyson didn't use it because he does a lot of work on the computer and needs a strong signal. It was enough of a signal for me to check my e-mail or facebook occasionally, though. We usually went to coffee shops (or Chick-fil-A! Have you tried them for wi-fi? They're so nice about their wi-fi and they let you stay as long as you want, even if you just buy a sweet tea or something), but for times in-between, I did use the signal from other people's wireless.
ReplyDeleteI actually think it would be more ethical to use if it was a residential signal than a business signal, because businesses offer wi-fi as an enticement for customers. It's unlikely, though, that where you guys live, it's a business because there aren't many businesses nearby...so it's probably a residential.
Honestly, my ethics are kind of shaky in this area, because I will burn a copy of a CD instead of buying it if a friend has it and I don't mind picking up wireless for free. If you really want to use it, why not ask a few neighbors if "linksys" is their network and whether they mind you logging on occasionally? If they're friends and you explain that you're writing a Christian blog, I bet they'd be receptive to it, as long as you ask them what hours they're not home/not using the Internet so you don't disrupt their use. Just an idea, though.
-Heather
Thanks. As you might have been able to tell... I've been using it. So far OK, but I am learning a few things in the process: Such as how much time I can waist! :)
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