Can My Neighbour and I Share an Internet Connection?

Answer: Internet sharing is not permitted on our network unless you have a valid ICASA ECN & ECNS Licence or special permission with a permit of the internet service supplier. From the Charter High Speed Internet AUP:

USE The Service is designed for personal and family use within a single household... Customer agrees that only the Customer and co-residents living in the same household will use the Service. The term ‘single household’ means the Customer’s home and includes an apartment, condominium, flat or other residential unit that may be used as a residence in any multiple dwelling unit. Customer may not resell or distribute the Service outside Customer’s household. The Service is being provided solely for use in Customer’s household and any unauthorized access by a third party to e-mail, Internet access, or any other function of the Service relieves Charter of any affirmative obligations it may have, and is in violation of this Policy.

Be aware: All ISPs now consider anyone using any broadband connection other than within the household subscribing to it illegal. It is backed by the courts as it is theft of service by possibly denying them a subscription. Their terms of service are only for use within the subscribing household. That means the person using it from outside would be held guilty and subject to up to 5 years prison PER connection. So 5 machines = 5 connections, 5 times connecting one machine = 5 connections. They DO prosecute and never lose a case. The person subscribing would be held guilty of conspiring to steal service, even if the did not get prosecuted, their service could be terminated without notice, and they would be liable for all outstanding contract payments, plus losses for the estimated additional usage of outside persons. It can get the address blacklisted so no other provider will supply service. If using it without the subscribers consent and they sensibly encrypt their network to make it secure, would also carry up to 20 years prison for cracking encryption.

Furthermore, consider the following: John asked if he and his neighbor could save money by sharing one Internet account, via Wi-Fi. This should work, but the negatives probably outweigh the positives. The basic concept is simple: You (or your neighbor) subscribes to an Internet service through your phone or cable company. You set up a router with secure Wi-Fi (which you should do, anyway), make sure you have a powerful enough signal to reach your neighbor's home, and give them the Wi-Fi password. Then the neighbor cancels their Internet service, accesses the Internet through yours, and pays you a monthly fee.

Both of you would take a performance hit, but that will only occasionally be a serious problem--for instance, if you're both streaming HD video at the same time. And even that can be easily fixed by paying for greater bandwidth. Many services only charge an extra $5 a month to double your speed.

So what could go wrong? Plenty.

First of all, how well do you trust your neighbor? And their kids? They could download something illegal, such as child pornography, and it would look to law enforcement agencies as if you're the culprit. And since you'd be sharing your local network as well as your Internet connection, they might be able to hack into your hard drive. And what happens if the neighbor with the service is on vacation when a problem develops? My DSL connection died while I was writing this post. I rebooted the modem and router and everything was fine. What if this had happened while I was on vacation and my neighbor depended on my connection. Finally, your ISP would almost certainly object. After all, they're losing money in this arrangement. If you read their Terms of Service, you're bound to find something banning such behavior. If they catch you, the consequences might be serious. All things considered, I do not think or believe it's worth the risk.