Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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Kasey Chang
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Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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Victoria Raverna
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by Victoria Raverna »

Not a good idea to depend on wifi for home security.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by jztemple2 »

From what I get from the story, the Nest camera was intended for ID'ing the burglar (not a porch pirate in this case) after the fact. It wasn't really for security; to me, security is to prevent something happening, not to try to solve it after the fact. If the burglar could come right in through the front door, seems the homeowner needs to step up his intrusion prevention measures. First thing, get rid of the useless dog :roll:
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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Very little will physically prevent something like this from happening. Security is mostly to dissuade. The presence of a camera dissuades. If they can bypass the cameras, they're bypassing security.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by jztemple2 »

Blackhawk wrote: Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:09 pm Very little will physically prevent something like this from happening. Security is mostly to dissuade. The presence of a camera dissuades. If they can bypass the cameras, they're bypassing security.
I'm a little confused about the idea that very little will physically prevent something like this from happening. It seems likely that if the money you spent on a nest camera was spent instead on a draw bolt and a deadbolt it would have been a much better security device.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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A professional burglar at the Indiana state prison explained to my wife how he chose easy targets even though he could break into any house. With the right tools, locks are beatable and doors are breakable. Pet dogs are useless if you have treats.

But most times, it’s the easy target. We’ve never lived on a city corner or place that didn’t have a streetlight nearby.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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Zarathud wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:03 pm A professional burglar at the Indiana state prison explained to my wife how he chose easy targets even though he could break into any house. With the right tools, locks are beatable and doors are breakable. Pet dogs are useless if you have treats.
There are about twenty houses on our block. Some have no outside lights at all, some have only one little light, some have a light or two with motion sensors. We have dual spotlights on all corners and halfway along the long sides, all of which are on all night. So there are nineteen seemingly easier targets to try before trying my house.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by Smoove_B »

Zarathud wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:03 pm But most times, it’s the easy target. We’ve never lived on a city corner or place that didn’t have a streetlight nearby.
At my last home, our neighbors had three separate B&E events while they weren't home, all during the day. If you looked at the four nearest houses in a line, the only difference between their home and the other three was that the other three (mine included) had visible signage regarding an alarm system. It's absolutely about not being an easy target and doing anything you can to make attempts at theft or entry less desirable - because you're right, nothing is 100%.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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And it helps that most of my nearby neighbors are retired and home during the day... and the other two are a city policeman and a deputy sheriff :D .
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by Blackhawk »

That about covers it. Nothing will keep people out physically. If you have a decent lock on your doors and windows, the next level of physical security that will make any difference is embedded bars and barricades. It's about being unattractive, and visible cameras/signage (even if they're fake) make a house unattractive. They are a lot harder to deal with than physical barriers. Being able to turn them off at will neutralizes that entire element of any security plan.

And having lighting is nice. But having floodlights on all night would get you shot around here, unless you were willing to buy blackout curtains for all of your neighbors.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

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Blackhawk wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 3:52 pm And having lighting is nice. But having floodlights on all night would get you shot around here, unless you were willing to buy blackout curtains for all of your neighbors.
We're about 100 feet away from our neighbors across the street and about 50 feet from our neighbors on each side so they don't see much light. And I'm careful on how I aim the lights. I know not to shine it across and get somebody's eyes :wink:
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by Blackhawk »

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 4:19 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 3:52 pm And having lighting is nice. But having floodlights on all night would get you shot around here, unless you were willing to buy blackout curtains for all of your neighbors.
We're about 100 feet away from our neighbors across the street and about 50 feet from our neighbors on each side so they don't see much light. And I'm careful on how I aim the lights. I know not to shine it across and get somebody's eyes :wink:
Then kudos to you. Too many of those damned things are set such that they light everybody's bedroom up like daylight.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Yeah, we have an absurdly floodlit house on our street. Everyone calls it ‘Gauntanamo’.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by jztemple2 »

Carpet_pissr wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:23 pm Yeah, we have an absurdly floodlit house on our street. Everyone calls it ‘Gauntanamo’.
On our house each fixture contains two bulbs. I point them so they illuminate the sides of the house on each side of the fixture. The fixtures are mounted on the soffit so they actually point inwards slightly as well as being pointed downward at about a 45 degree angle. I can't imagine pointing them outward to annoy my neighbors :think:
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by Carpet_pissr »

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 11:37 pm
Carpet_pissr wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:23 pm Yeah, we have an absurdly floodlit house on our street. Everyone calls it ‘Gauntanamo’.
On our house each fixture contains two bulbs. I point them so they illuminate the sides of the house on each side of the fixture. The fixtures are mounted on the soffit so they actually point inwards slightly as well as being pointed downward at about a 45 degree angle. I can't imagine pointing them outward to annoy my neighbors :think:
I can’t either, but plenty of ppl do it.

In fact, a few streets over, I remember seeing what looked like some passive aggressive cross-street neighbor fight over floodlighting. There were signs, etc - stuff that every passer-by could read, antagonizing or complaining about the flood lights across the street!. Crazy.
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Re: Are Porch Pirates Using Wifi Jammers?

Post by LawBeefaroni »

I had a friend who worked in the pigeon mitigation business. He compared it to home security. "You don't have to make your building completely pigeon-proof, you just have to make it less attractive to pigeons than your neighbors'."
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